Tough But Tender
by tempest-races
Summary: He loves her, she loves him. But things aren't right. Will they ever be again? Is love enough? Are there any happily ever afters in their world?
1. Author's note and disclaimercopyright

Disclaimer. I don't own anything from the fast and the furious. The characters are the property of Universal studios and I'm just taking them out to play. I will return them all, but maybe Vince when I am done. ;) I also don't own the song My Immortal. Nothing will be gained by this story but maybe some people telling me they like it or don't. I own nothing of value if you were to sue me except an alarming number of cars that don't really work right.Strange but true.  
  
AN: Ok. I originally wrote this to be a one chapter ficlet. But I've been contemplating writing a Dom/Letty story for some time now and this one gave me some ideas. So I minorly revamped the first part and it is chapter one here. Chapter 2 is all new stuff. I'm not really sure how I see this going so I don't know what else to tell you all about it. The only thing I'm contemplating is whether or not to have chapters from Dom's point of view or if the story should be all from Letty's like it currently is. If anyone has an opinion on that please let me know. But do let me know what you think of the story even if you don't have an opinion on the whole narrator thing. Thanks and enjoy.  
  
I was never really happy with the title so I decided to reupload the whole thing and give it a new title as well. I think that about covers it. On with the story. 


	2. Tough but tender

Chapter 1 - Reflections  
  
After much reflection I've decided that holding this inside of me isn't helping my any and I've decided to see what writing it down does for me. Here goes. I feel so stupid for doing this, but anyway.Here goes.  
  
Dear Diary, I guess, I mean I don't keep a diary, but I need to get this out and there's no one else to tell it too. I'll likely burn this when I'm done writing it but I hope putting it into the physical realm and out of my head brings me some peace.  
  
I'm so tired of it. Being here with him. Held back by fears that I think are so childish. I mean, I'm scared of being alone, without him. But I'm alone anyway. I don't know which would be worse. Being alone and not having him in any sense, or staying here and having him in only sight ways that just skim the surface of what I feel for him. I mean, mentally he's already left me anyway. I wish he'd just leave me totally so I don't have to do it, be the one that ends it. He knows I won't anyway. I can't. I'm held back by those same childish fears of being alone and lonely. Just like I was before I got him, before he saved me.  
  
When I was a little girl and my dad would hit me I always knew I could run to him. He would be my rock. He always acted like I was a pain in front of his guy friends but it was just an act back then. He didn't want to look less adult because he had a little girl tagging along. But he didn't really think I was a pest. He had to keep up his appearance was all. I knew that, and so did he but we didn't let on. It was like we had this great secret that no one else shared. Contrary to Mia's belief I didn't have a crush on him then. That came later. But he was always there for me. I don't think I can pinpoint just when it changed, when he withdrew from me, but he has, he did and I can't bring him back to me. I've tried. God knows I've tried.  
  
I know he's not happy, this man of mine. The love of my life. He's miserable, I'm miserable too, and I don't know why he doesn't end things. He's the one who'll have to and I think he knows it. I try to tell myself that he's gone. He's gone even though he's still here with me. I wish he'd just leave. If he's going to leave then he should just LEAVE! He took his heart back from me a long time ago anyway, he only left his body and for the first while after things changed it was enough. It was enough to still have him in my life, even in that purely physical way that barely skimmed the surface of the bond we use to have.  
  
The wounds that I got in that final car crash have healed. I'm as good as new on the outside, but the wounds that he's given my heart haven't healed. You'd think by now they would have. That I would have grown some sort of defence mechanism to protect myself. But the damn wounds in my heart just won't heal. The pain is too much to take sometimes and I think of ending it in the most permanent way. But then I think of the rest of the guys and Mia. I know I can't. Plus I don't really want to. I want to say he's not worth it, but he is, and that pisses me off even more. He's worth everything to me but I get the feeling I'm not worth much to him anymore. I'd hoped time would either fix us, or at least fix me, but it hasn't. It might, if I wasn't still here, still trying to let this shell of a relationship be enough to satisfy me, even though I've had all of him and I know this will never, ever be enough.  
  
What the rest of the world, the rest of the team doesn't know is he's always had nightmares. They terrify him. He wakes up in a cold sweat, screaming his beautiful head off. Then he turns to me. Then he acts like I'm still the one. I don't tell anyone because he's the tough guy, it would kill him to know that others knew he was a mortal as the rest of us, and he could be hurt and be scared just like anyone else. When I wake him from one of these terrifying night terrors or he wakes himself he turns to me then, pulls me to him to hold him while he cries. And like the lovesick fool I am I let him use me like this.  
  
I know as soon as the sun shines it's warmth in our window, well, his window, he'll be right back to treating me like one of the guys. Not like the woman he said he loved. Like the woman he is still sleeping with. I hate him now. I hate him for a lot of things. I think its hate. Whoever said the line between love and hate is a thin one was more right then they ever knew. Unless they went through something like I am. I love him so much. Then when he's not around me, when I can't see the beautiful face, I hate him more then I ever hated anything else. Even my abusive dad, who he use to be my savoir from. It's like I have this wonderful, caring, sweet, and vulnerable midnight lover and this cold, unfeeling, uncaring daytime boyfriend. I know what they say about me. I'm supposed to be the girl that's not scared of anything. Yet here I am, scared of doing something as easy as leaving a guy who doesn't seem to care if I stay or go anyway.  
  
When he first looked at me with new eyes, eyes that saw me as a woman and not a little girl that needed him it was so good. As Mia likes to say, he's like gravity and he pulled me in like he pulled in everyone else. But I pulled him in too. He didn't cheat on me once the whole first 2 years we were together. Not only was the 2 years a record for him so was the not cheating thing. I thought that was it, we were meant to be together. He was my every girlhood dream come true. I was tough then too, but he saw the soft side of me, he's almost the only one who knows I have one, who still sees it. I don't think anyone else remembers that I'm not only a tough woman, but one that needs to be cared for too.  
  
At first it was like I was a flower that needed sun to grow and Dom was my sun. I guess I figured if a guy like Dom wanted me then I must be something special. I was totally enthralled with him, just like a sunflower that follows the sun's path across the summer sky, I turned my face into his light and grew. I had so many dreams for our future together. I see so many of them in tatters and the shards they broke into around my feet now.  
  
First he cheated on me once. But it was always a mistake. He always apologized so well, so nicely. And I kept taking him back. I mean I was pulled into his gravitational pull. Haha. I'm never telling Mia she was right about that, no matter how right she was. He haunts my every thought and I don't have the strength to pull myself out his sphere.  
  
And every time I see him it's like all those girlish dreams are thrown right back in my face. And then broken. They're all broken and nothing can put them back together. Both of us know what to do with broken cars, neither of us know what to do with this broken relationship and I don't think we'll ever figure it out. It's just that I've been fighting his fears and mine for so long now and not getting any help or support for doing it that I think some finite source of love or something inside me is all used up now. That's why I'm finally thinking all this stuff out, telling this story. If you knew me, you'd know how strange it is for me to talk about any of this stuff. Even if it is just in my own head.  
  
I've told myself that he's been gone from me in his head for so long now that it shouldn't matter if I leave him. But then he'll have another nightmare and it'll be so sweet while we hold each other in the night. And that'll make me think, if he still turns to me like this then he must still care about me. There's just something going on that makes him act cold and unfeeling toward me during the daytime. But the daytimes are the more convincing of the two.  
  
It's so unfair. I get to hold him in the night, hold his hand, while he gets to hold all of me, mind, body, and soul. I gave him my heart. I don't think I can take it back. I don't know how. But I get to hold his hand, while he holds all of me. I get a small piece while he gets the whole thing. I deserve better.  
  
I looked up from my writing as I heard a noise behind me. First the door opening then heavy, masculine footsteps entered the room a few paces. I paused, pen still to paper for a moment, then set the pen down slowly and carefully and schooled my face into an impassive mask. Then I turned around to face the door. And there he was. And the words I'd been both longing to hear and dreading just as much left his sinful mouth.  
  
"Let, we need to talk."  
  
Chapter 2 - Tough, But Tender.  
  
We need to talk he says and God help me I know why. I know what he's going to say. Much as I've been wishing for it, it makes me sick to my stomach to think of it. I try to push the nausea down. I know what he wants to talk about and it makes me sick. I want to run and throw up but I don't want him to know how upset I am either. So I settle for setting my face in my typical bad ass expression. If he's going to break up with me then he's not getting any help from me, nor is he getting any satisfaction such as tears out of me either.  
  
"What do we need to talk about Dom.?" I sigh. I want him to know he's interrupting me, bothering me. Well he's not, but I don't want him to know that. I want him to think I'm just being Letty the bad ass.  
  
"Well." He trails off, like he's not sure why he came in here. We both know why he's here and I don't know who he thinks he's fooling. "We need to talk about us." He sits on our, or rather his, bed and pats a section of comforter beside him on the bed.  
  
"I'll sit here if you don't mind." I retort back at him with considerable bad attitude. Like I said if he's breaking up with me then I'm not helping him do it. Not going to go easy on him. Sit beside him all happy and tell him it's ok. It's not ok and it's mostly his fault. I tried at first, but he never did. That makes this his fault. Besides that if I end up on or in that bed with him all that's going to happen is sex. And not the I love you, beautiful slow kind we use to have but the raunchy knock them down drag 'em out rough sex that we use to have every once in a while for fun but that is now the only kind we seem to know how to have. And because of that I'm making this hard on him.  
  
"Letty." He sighs and looks at me. Begging me with those big brown puppy eyes not to make this harder on him then it already is. But I'm not that nice. He never made anything easy on me. Even when he promised he would. So this should be hard on him. It's going to be hard as hell on me after all.  
  
"What is it Dom?" I ask him again. I wish he'd get to the point already. It's killing me to sit here and wait for him to drop the bomb like I know he's going to. I gag slightly, the nausea almost winning but I manage to keep it down and keep it from him. I school myself to remain calm, like I don't know what's coming. Like I wasn't just writing about the very same thing.  
  
"I think you know that things haven't been right between us for a while now Letty." Dom started, looking upset and nervous all at the same time. I'm like the only one who can read his expressions so accurately. Me and Brian could most of the time, could before he ran off after making sure that Tran paid for what he did. Left the team. Left Dom. I think that was the beginning of the end for us. Dom really liked Brian and Brian taking off on him really hit Dom hard. The rest of the team thinks Dom either looks perpetually angry or happy, no emotions in between. I can tell what he's feeling all the time and no matter how much he'd like to deny it, his emotions run the gamut same as everyone else's.  
  
"Tell me something I don't know Dom." I answered him. I almost felt bad when I saw his face fall, but I hardened my heart. After all, I'm not the one who hasn't been trying. I've been trying so hard. I've been nice to him. I've tried not to be such a bitch to him. Tried to trust him and not ask him where he's been or what he's been doing. And what do I get for my efforts? I get dumped that's what. Or at least that's what he's trying to do. Not that successfully I might add.  
  
"Letitia." He says my name on a sigh and trails off again. I bet he is again wishing I'd go easy on him. Fat chance. I cut him off.  
  
"Don't call me that." My full name has a meaning, an origin. It means joy or gladness. I don't have any joy in my heart and no gladness for Dom. I don't want to hear my full name leave his lips. Like he understands he nods.  
  
"I don't know how to do this any other way so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. You've always been the tough girl and we've never had to sugar coat things between us before." Dom says as he looks at me.  
  
No, we've never had to sugar coat anything. Of course it's hard to sugar coat the fact that the man you love will sleep with any skank who can get her skirt up high enough to spread her legs far enough open. But I wonder if telling Dom that is smart. Fuck smart. I decide to go out with a bang if this is to be our last fight as a couple.  
  
"Nope, but it's hard to sugar coat the fact that your boyfriend sleeps with any girl who'll drop her pants for him, sometimes even in our own bed. Then promises not to do it anymore and does it again anyway. Then comes up with a harebrained scheme to make money that almost sees two of our best friends killed, sees me hurt, sees Mia lose her love, sees someone else dead. Then decides he doesn't want to be with me anymore, but keeps fucking me because I'm convenient. Then after months of using me for sex and for comfort comes into the room where I am and tells me he's not going to let me down easy he's just going to tell me." I almost made myself cry there. I reduced our relationship to the lowest common denominator, and as much as I know I'm correct it also hurts like hell to think of him using me like that, like he has.  
  
"Letty. I know I haven't been the best boyfriend ever, especially over the last few months. But there hasn't been anyone but you in my life for a long time. And I kept sleeping with you because I hoped that it would make everything right. But it won't and I can't go on hurting you like I am. I love you Letty but at this point in my life I'm just going to continue to be a horrible boyfriend and I have a lot of shit to work through on my own before I'm going to be fit to be in my own life, let alone in someone else's. I can't find my own happiness Let, let along be responsible for yours too. The physical part of our relationship has never been an issue for either of us, it's always been the communication part that didn't work and I know that's mostly my fault. I've told you so many times that I'm sorry for cheating on you but I'll tell you again. I truly am sorry for every time I ever did that, ever hurt you. But I'm not fit to be in anyone's life right now."  
  
He was taking the easy way out then. Telling me that he was the problem and that someday, with time when he was better then we might have a chance. I can't believe this is how it's going to end. I've been in love with Dominic Toretto since I was about 13. Known him since we moved here when I was 10. I've had him fighting my battles for me from almost the day I moved into this neighbourhood. Now it seems I'll have to start fighting them on my own. Especially since if he's breaking up with me I'll have to leave this house, maybe even LA and that means I won't have V anymore either. It's scary.  
  
"So you're breaking up with me?" I asked him. I was fairly sure that was where he was going with this whole thing, but I wanted to clarify and put it in totally certain terms before I really flipped out.  
  
"Not really Letty. But we need to take a break. Take some time apart." Dom said and the look on his face was really sincere. But he's always been good a faking sincere with me too.  
  
"Dom there is no such thing as a break. Either we're together or we're not. I refuse to wait around for you while you screw other girls. I refuse to wait for you to take your break and come back to me. If you want to be with me that's fine, we'll try to work things out. But if you don't want to be with me then you don't and we're broken up. There will not be 'a break' in this relationship. Either we still have a relationship, or you are effectively saying we've thrown away the last 6 years of our lives. I will not hang around this house and wait for you to finish playing at being single and come back to me. I will not wait on you." Again I reduced things to the lowest common denominator for the sake of clarity and watched his face fall. He'd hoped I'd give him his break to try to see if he could do better I suppose.  
  
"But I have things I need to straighten out Letty and I can't do that if I know I'm making you miserable at the same time and I know I am." He looked at me and I swear I could still see love for me in his eyes. If there's still love for me in him then why is he doing this to me? "I'm not doing this so that I can be single again for awhile or something Let. I have some real issues to work out."  
  
For Dom to admit that is one hell of a feat. I know that. But at the same time it's just breaking my heart to lose my Dominic from my life. I don't know what he was thinking anyway. I mean he must have known how much it would kill me to be around him in his life and not be able to call him my man.  
  
"So you're telling me that we are broken up then because you have issues you need to work out on your own."  
  
He nodded at me with a look of pure sorrow on his face that almost did me in again. That almost made me decide I could let him have his break if it meant for sure that one day he would decide he wanted to be with me again. But I am a woman in every sense of the word and I deserve better. I deserve to have a man in my life that is wholly in my life, not playing at being my man or being my part time lover while he tries to make up his mind what he really wants or how he really feels. I nodded once to show I understood the decision we had reached and got up.  
  
I walked up to our, or rather, his closet and took out my duffle. I started to pack my clothes out of the closet into the bag. I wanted to scream. I wanted to yell. I wanted to smack Dom around. I wanted to hit him hard. I'd broken down and hit him hard enough to bruise him once before, when I'd caught him in the middle of fucking the whore in our bed and it had felt so good. But it also let him know how much I cared about it. I wanted to throw a kicking, screaming temper tantrum on the floor. But I didn't. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd hurt me or upset me that much. So I calmly packed my stuff into my duffle.  
  
"What're you doing Letty?" Dom asked me, shock replacing the sadness on his beautiful face.  
  
"What'dya think Dom? I'm packing my shit." I told him with an exasperated tone. I don't know what the boy thought. That'd I'd keep living in his bed, in his room and in his life after he effectively managed to do what no one else ever had, break my heart. Sometimes Dom Toretto is the densest, thickest boy I know. He puts hard headed Vince to shame every once in a while.  
  
"I can see that Letty but why? You don't have to leave."  
  
"What'dya mean I don't have to leave Dom? You just broke up with me. Told me you needed your space. Told me you didn't want to be anyone's boyfriend right now. You thought what? That I'd keep sleeping in your bed and living in your room afterward?"  
  
The look on his face clearly told me that he while maybe he hadn't thought that, he hadn't thought what would happen after through at all either. He'd just known our relationship was sick and he'd thought that ending it was the best thing to do. However the practical things like where I would go after he did this and the fact that I wouldn't be saving him in the night any more had never occurred to him.  
  
"I don't want to lose you from my life Letty. I just don't want you to hurt anymore. I never thought you'd leave home. Leave the team." Leave me. It was in his eyes but he didn't say it to me. He'd broken up with me but he didn't think I'd leave him. He was so selfish. He both wanted his space and wanted me in his life. He never thought he couldn't have both because he was so used to getting his own way in everything. He couldn't have his way in this.  
  
Just how selfish Dominic Toretto really was hit me in a wave and made me so angry. I started throwing stuff into my bad even more violently.  
  
"Don't run away from me Letty, from the team. We don't want to lose you. Just because you and I aren't together for awhile doesn't mean you have to leave the house." He pleaded with me. Dom never pleads, but when he knows he's fucked up with me. Then he'll beg. But I know he's only doing it because often the shock value of seeing the great Dominic Toretto humble himself is enough to make people grant him his way.  
  
I should really thank him I guess. That act on his part was enough to grant me the strength to pull myself free of his gravitational pull. For now.  
  
"I'm not running! You're sending me away. I love you Dominic Toretto. In the forever and ever kind of way. But you don't love me. You just told me as much. You've been killing our relationship ever since august when all the shit went down. You are easily the most selfish man I've ever met."  
  
"Letty." He said my name like an entreaty. It was like he was begging me to listen to him. I had no intention of doing so.  
  
"Don't interrupt me Dominic. I'll admit that I was really mad at you after I'd rolled my car and you sent Leon back for me instead of coming yourself and letting Leon get V. But V was your best friend and I guess on some level I understood that since you'd effectively gotten him into the mess you had to get him out. I'll admit I was madder then hell at you while I watched them take V away in that chopper. I'll admit I was hard on you at first for being the one that had to go through with everything even after we all begged you not to. But I got over it. I got over it and so did everyone else. Mia got on with her life after Brian never showed up again. Vince worked his ass off and got the use of his arm back, got over the scars and got on with his life too. Jesse worked his ass off and he's almost as good as new. Leon's back to normal. I tried my best but you.You just sort of gave up Dom. Just decided that it wasn't worth fighting for and gave up. That means that you decided that I wasn't worth fighting for, that it was easy for you to give up on me. I can't make you try harder, nor can I make you change your mind. If you want space to be on your own and think and try to work things out you can have it. But I'm not going to hang around and wait on you to come around Dominic. If you ever do come around you can look me up."  
  
And with that, since I'd finished packing all my stuff while I ranted I shouldered my bag and headed for the door. I was proud of that rant. That was tame for me. I didn't yell or scream. I didn't hit him or throw things. I'd kept my dignity. The very thing he'd tried to strip me of time and time again even though he didn't think about it and didn't really know he was doing it.  
  
I had my hand on the knob when I heard my name. I thought I was imagining things at first because it was said softly in a trembling voice. For Dom's voice to tremble he'd have to be crying. Crying in the daytime over something other then his father's death. And that just never happened. Had never happened in all our time together. I turned to look at him and he was staring at me with a single tear track leading all the way from his left eye down to his chin.  
  
"Don't leave my life Letty. I never wanted that to happen. I just want to get back to where we were before and to do that I need some time. Please don't leave me." I watched as another single tear ran it's way down his face. I almost broke down and stayed. I steeled myself. Dom needed to grow up. And in a lot of ways so did I. Maybe this time apart was what we both needed. Maybe he hadn't planned it to come out this way but maybe it was also for the best. I wasn't a cruel person. Sometimes Dom drove me to cruel acts but I wasn't cruel by nature. Tough, but tender inside. That was me. I'd had to grow that tough outer shell to protect my tender inside. That wasn't Dom's fault. That had been my dad's fault but Dom sure hadn't helped me not need the tough shell any, that was for sure. I often think of what in the world made me fall for Dom. Is there some higher power who wanted to see me suffer? I couldn't stay here and that meant I had to go. Don't leave me, he'd begged, after he'd just broken up with me. He was so fucking selfish!  
  
"Dom, maybe you thought we'd keep playing house while we were broken up but it doesn't work that way. Maybe you didn't see this happening but it's likely for the best. If you work your way out of the hole you're in then look me up." With that I opened the door to our, no his, I need to remember that this house was never mine, this room was always his and until he grows up it always will only be his, room and walked out. Closing the door to my past behind me and walking down the stairs of the house into my future. Bleak as it was likely to be without my sun in it.  
  
At the bottom of the stairs I looked around the living room one last time. Seeing V's chair with his guitar propped up beside it. Just waiting for the man in question to burst in the front door, plop down, pop the top on a cold corona and pick it up and strum a chord or two. Then grin at me and ask me what I wanted him to play for me. Vince. The second love of my life in a strictly older brother kind of way. I'm going to miss having him around. And Dom is likely to have the world's biggest headache ever after he gets the lecture that will no doubt come his way from Vince over this whole situation.  
  
I walked slowly into the living room and spotted a few more items. Leon's Playstation. No matter how much he practises he can never beat me at racing games. He can beat me on the streets. Not easily, and I've beaten him a few times, but he can't beat me at any racing games. Not for lack of trying. It's so funny to watch. That's why when we play Grand theft auto he's always picking up hookers. Because he knows it's the one thing he does better then me in the whole game. But it always makes me smile. My eyes land on Dom's chair, the chair where we watched so many movies curled up together, his arms around me and his breath tickling the side of my neck. I looked away quickly from that sight.  
  
Next I see Jesse's laptop. He's never without that thing. I don't know where he is that he left it behind. It's waiting on his end of the couch for him to bound in the door with his endless energy and one track mind and pick it up to start designing our next race car or surfing for the endless amounts of porn that kid looks up on the internet. I've never seen any group of guys as sex crazed as this bunch. Of course all of them but Dom are confirmed bachelors. I guess they all are now. I almost lost my composure at that thought but I held on and headed into the kitchen. Mia's domain.  
  
I can see her at the counter now. Making some of our favourite foods. I can see her with Brian behind her at the counter looking happier then she ever had before, with his arms around her waist. She might complain but she loves to take care of us all. She has more mothering and denning instinct then any one woman deserves to. I think she got my share as well as her own. She takes care of us all, and worries about us. Mia and I are the same age almost to the day, but in so many ways Mia is so much older then I am and in so many other ways I feel ten times older then her. But when we get together it's like we cancel each other out and we both get to be crazy 22 year old girls. I was so looking forward to Mia being my sister by law and not just by a love so strong for each other that we think of each other as sisters. But I guess it'll never happen now. I know Mia and I couldn't be more different but we still love each other like family. Maybe her bloodlines are as Italian as mine are Latin but we were bound together by years of friendship and love and a mutual love of the man in our life. Dom.  
  
We should be family or we should see that possibility in the future. But Dom and his selfishness took that away from us. Why did it take me so long to see just how selfish Dom really is? I mean, he's a good man too, but so selfish in a lot of ways.  
  
No matter how long I stand here and think about it it's not going to change things. Dom will get his way as he often does and we'll have our break. My only question now is what will I do with my life? He threw my life out of order to try to give his some. That's fine for him. He gets to keep the team, the garage, his life. All the things that give his life meaning and routine are still available to him. I on the other hand am now lost. My family is this team. My blood family are not worth thinking of. My abusive dad and junkie mom. They stopped being family the day I moved out of their house and into this house with my real family.  
  
I thought of them again for a moment. My family, my team.  
  
Vince and his almost perpetual need to fight something or someone. His constant but unacknowledged need to be taking care of the weaker people in his life. His total and complete but sometimes undeserved loyalty to Dominic. His total and, I'm proud to say, deserved loyalty and love for me. I love him right back. He's always got my back. And I always have his. Unlike Dominic, who whether he'll admit it or not tends to use Vince to do his dirty work because it's easy to do. His sad but true love of Mia. How I wish Mia could love him back. But she can't. And what so many people don't see is the fact that she wishes she could. But he's been her second older brother for too long. She does love Vince, don't get me wrong. But she loves him the way she loves Dominic and that's never going to change. But Vince will look out for her for the rest of his life. I just hope that Vince doesn't loose track of the fact that he deserves some happiness too. I hope the girl that'll knock Mia off her throne in his life comes along soon. I love Vince. He's my V. What more can I say.  
  
Leon and his need to be the peacemaker. To have us all around him and happy. To keep us safe in his own way. To watch for the cops at race night. To calm Dom down when his temper gets out of control. To watch out for Mia and I on race nights and in life. His need to try and make sure that Vince doesn't sell himself short or get taken advantage of. I think Leon is the only other person but me that sees how easy it is for people to take advantage of Vince if Vince cares about them. Vince is so damn loyal to us that he'll do anything we ask of him, even if it's dangerous. But Leon sees that and tries to stop it, but he does it with his tact and Vince never knows. His need to keep Jesse safe and happy. His unflagging, dogged determination to beat me at a race game, and race game. His beautiful smile and gorgeous green eyes and terminal fear of commitment. The fact that if it were possible he'd marry that fuckin Skyline. Her name is Kimi and woe to anyone who doesn't think she's real. Leon sure does. The name is Japanese and it means literally 'she who is without equal'. And that is how Leon sees his car, so no girl he's ever been with has been able to equal his car in his affections so he's single. Till he finds a girl who can throw Kimi out of his affections on her ear he always will be. But he's so gorgeous that girls fall over themselves for him, and because he can't have sex with his car he gets with them but it never works out. I love Leon too.  
  
Jesse. Jesse is always in a good mood. He's the smartest person on this team and he doesn't even really know it. He thinks he's stupid because he failed in school. As if. Jesse could go anywhere or do anything if he put his mind to it. And there in lies the problem because he has ADD and he can't put his mind to anything for too long before he gets bored then sidetracked. But he's so sweet. And innocent too. I mean, not totally innocent but in a lot of ways he really is. Leon looks out for Jesse a lot. Jesse loves Dom blindly. Too blindly by times. But Jesse lost his father at a young age to the California state penal system and Dom took him in. And Dom became like a father figure to Jesse. Jesse needed one but I'm not sure that Dom was the best choice. But Dom looks out for Jesse as best as he can and Leon fills in the blanks. And Jesse is the best damn mechanic this side of New York. But if Vince is big brother to me then Jesse is my little brother. He's taught me a lot of what I know about tuning imports. Dom's father gave me my mechanical background but Jesse taught me about small engines with big horsepower, NOS and turbos, upgraded piston rings and running large amounts of boost, coil covers and advanced timing and cold air intakes. I love him for it as much as I'm going to miss watching out for him and trying without success to steer him toward nice girls while he goes out of his way to get with skanky ones. Jesse's my boy. I love him. I'll miss looking out for him.  
  
Finally I turn my thoughts to Mia. The sister I never had. The sister that should be mine. The feminine counterpart to my tomboy, tough girl. Between the two of us we were one hell of a woman. She cooked and cleaned. I fixed and raced the cars. We both loved her brother, albeit in different ways. I grin with that thought. Poor Mia. I can't count the number of times she's caught me and Dom looking at each other 'that way' and made her grossed out face. I can't count the number of times she held me close while I'd cried about Dom cheating on me, again. The number of times she held ice on my swollen knuckles when I just had to fight that skank who'd looked at Dom too long or that guy who'd shot his mouth off. Or anyone who pissed me off in any way if Dom and I were fighting. She was always there for me but this time I had a feeling she was going to be there for Dom and I was going to be all on my own. Maybe it was time. I'd had Dom and Vince to help me fight my wars for a long time and I really think I'm ready to fight them on my own for awhile. But it still hurts like hell. I was going to miss her almost most of all. Mia understood me. She's seen all there is to see. Happy, sad, upset, angry, out of my mind, ready to kill, high on adrenaline, drunk. She's seen it all. And she still loves me anyway. I hope I find a girl where ever I end up to be half the friend to me that Mia is. But I doubt it'll happen. It hurts to think of leaving Mia almost most of all. Of never walking into that stupid café and saying "How you livin' girl?" To her while I offer Dom a drink.  
  
Last but certainly never least in my book my thoughts turned to Dom. The only man I ever wanted for my own. I'm not stupid. I've seen the way other guys look at me. I could have any one of them. But I don't want any of them at all. I want Dominic. I had him. But not totally. I always had to share him with the racer chasers. He always tried to tell me that it was all part of his image. That he had to look like a big player so that he wouldn't lose respect around races. But I knew, and Dom never figured it out. They only wanted him for the image same as those other guys only wanted me because I was his girl. Other guys wanted to be the guy that took me from him. And other girls got to be the girl who took him from me. At least long enough for him to screw them. Maybe he hadn't cheated on me in as long as he'd said, but he'd done it enough in the middle three years for a lifetime.  
  
And there is another example of his selfishness. He says he loves me, said he loved me then, but for some reason guys thinking he was a playboy was more important then my pride and my happiness. He knew that other girls thought he was cheating on me even when he wasn't. He always just told me that it didn't matter because he wasn't cheating on me. So he said since I knew the truth that it shouldn't matter what they said.  
  
But when I pointed out that if that was the case then it shouldn't matter what other guys thought of him for being in love with his woman and not wanting the attention of the skanks when he knew he had something better at home he clammed up and said in his mumbling, annoying little boy tone that it 'was different' for him then it was for me. But he could never tell me how.  
  
I shook my head to clear the cobwebs and headed for the front door. I paused for a moment with my hand on the doorknob and turned around to study the house from the inside once more. I wanted to remember how it looked and felt to be a member of this team instead of the outsider I was about to become as soon as I walked out the door with no idea when, if ever I was coming back. No one will ever know the strength it took to keep me moving out the door and out of that house. Out of his sphere.  
  
But I did it. I turned the knob slowly to the right and stepped out onto the porch in the glaring afternoon sun, shutting the door softly behind me. I walked down the three steps that lead to the walkway down to the curb where my car was parked. I hoped the team didn't come home before I got away. I don't know if I would have had the strength to leave if my guys had begged me not to. I'd used up all the strength I had to leave anyway when Dominic had begged.  
  
If Vince turned those big baby blues on me and begged me to stay I might just have to do it. If Leon looked at me with his gorgeous green eyes clouded over with worry about things not being peaceful in his world and asked me to stay I might have to. If Jesse broke down and cried like the little boy he was inside in front of me I wouldn't be able to leave him. If Mia told me she couldn't make it through the pain that Brian leaving her had left in her life without me then I might have to pull her close for a change and stay for her sake. And I knew for my sake I had to go. So no matter how much I hated to hurt my family it was time for me to put Letitia first and leave. At least for a time.  
  
I got up to the side of my car, inserted the key into the lock and then paused again, shooting a look up at the house, at the window that I use to consider mine. If I'm not mistaken I think he was watching me leave. Begging me with his gaze not to. I saw the curtain in his room twitch. But with another burst of strength I didn't know I possessed I opened the car door and flipped the seat forward. Then I tossed my bag in the back and slid in.  
  
Sliding behind the wheel of my car was like coming home. For the first 30 seconds. Then is was a constant reminder of Dom helping me build him. His name was Raidon, who was the Japanese god of thunder. How appropriate for a Japanese 240sx Silvia. He was a thunder god. But Dom was in every fibre of the upholstery, every grain of the dash, every spin of the CD player. Dom and I had christened this car. In the back seat, on the hood, in the front seat. While he was driving with me in his lap.  
  
And those memories were no easier to suppress then those of Me and Dom and Vince and Mia as kids playing. Dom was such a part of my life that I still wasn't clear on how I was going to go on without him. I know I could have if I still had the rest of the team. But losing Dom and the rest of the team in one fell swoop was crushing me. I didn't start the car right away. I sat in it and just let the sorrow crash over me. The adrenaline of the scene with Dominic was wearing off and a bone crushing weight of sorrow was pressing me down. How was I going to live my life without the one person who'd both known I really was as tough as I looked to the word, and knew that while I was that tough I also had a soft side that was just begging for someone to take care of me too?  
  
Then the tears started. I wouldn't let Dom see me cry but that didn't mean I wouldn't cry about what had happened. But now that I was crying I had to go. I had to leave before Dom or any other team member saw me crying. Because while I did occasionally have to cry, I never let anyone but Dom and one time Vince see me do it. It was my secret.  
  
I started up the car with a practised flick of my wrist and engaged first. With one more quick look up at the house I let up on the clutch, gave my car some gas and pealed off our street. I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do when I got there. I allowed myself a few moments of worry for the guys and Mi. Then I decided to turn over a new leaf of only looking out for myself for awhile and I headed the car east.  
  
I drove out of California and into Texas that first day. I cried the whole drive. I hate myself for that. That's too much crying for anyone. Let alone for me. I still had no idea where I was going. It was dark and I felt the need to stop for a rest. I started looking for a motel that didn't look like someone named Bates owned it.  
  
It's hard to find a motel that doesn't look like that in Texas. Or at least it is when you can hardly see because your eyes are so blurry from both fatigue and from crying so much. I finally just picked a motel. I didn't care what it was like anymore if it had a shower and a bed for me to get some sleep. And I figured I should call the team and let them know I was ok. Dead inside but otherwise ok. Not Dom mind you. He deserved to worry about me. But the rest of them didn't. I didn't know what I was going to tell them though. I didn't know where I was going or what I was doing so it was going to be hard to tell them.  
  
I signalled for the right hand turn and pulled into the Motel. After getting a room with my fake ID to help lessen the chance of any of the team finding me if they should happen to be out looking I took the key they gave me and walked up a flight of stairs to the second floor and opened the door to room number 213. Great number, I thought to myself as I opened the door.  
  
I walked in and took in the terrible but clean décor. It seemed I had chosen well, even if it was by random. I headed straight to the bathroom. The whole day I'd had had made me feel dirty somehow and I needed a hot shower first and foremost. I closed the blinds, turned up the A/C and started shedding my hot, dirty, sweaty, grimy clothes in a trail up the bathroom and I was naked by the time I reached the door of the bathroom. I turned on the water and waited for it to heat up. I was hotter then hell already but I knew the only thing that was going to make me feel better was a hot shower. Thus the A/C for when I got out and tried to get some rest.  
  
I stepped under the relentlessly hot and strong spray of the shower and turned my face into it. It was good for a minute or too, then it made me think of him again. Of taking showers with him in the morning. Of the way he'd soap my skin, the way he was so gentle with me. The way he'd have me shave his head for him when we got out because he always cut himself but I could do it smoother but all without cutting him at all. And I started to sob again. I'm really starting to hate myself.  
  
I cried myself out again in the shower then got out and dried myself off almost roughly out of my anger at myself over all the crying. Once I was dry I left the bathroom still naked as the day I was born and headed over to the phone.  
  
I stared at that phone for about 10 minutes before I realized it. I only came to because I was getting so cold. I was damp to begin with and the air conditioner I'd turned up before my shower was really efficient.  
  
I picked up the receiver and listened to the dial tone for a further minute trying to screw up my courage to make the call. And that made me mad at myself all over again. I wasn't scared of anything, let alone of calling some of my best friends. So why couldn't I dial the familiar numbers that would connect me with one of my friends.  
  
I knew the root of the fear I was experiencing stemmed from not wanting him to answer. I could handle talking to any of them but him. But I didn't want Mia to worry all night like I knew she would if I didn't tell her I was ok. I slowly started to dial. 1 323 555. It took me a whole minute to impute the whole phone number. But I did it. My hand shook the whole time.  
  
One ring. Then two. I almost hung up but kept it together. Three. Still no answer.  
  
Four. Still nothing.  
  
Five. A sleepy hello. It was only 12am. Why where they asleep?  
  
"Hey V." I wanted to cry. I wanted to tell Vince where I was so he'd come get me and make it all better like he had when I was a kid and some chick had picked on me for being to skinny or too good with cars. But instead all I said was hi V and waited for him to say something back.  
  
"Let. Where the hell are you?" All traces of sleep were gone from his voice now.  
  
"Somewhere else." I answered and I knew it was lame. But I didn't really want him to come for me, much as I did. "He left me V."  
  
"I know." He sighed out and I knew that things in California were not going well either. "Are you ok Let?"  
  
"Yeah." I lied. I think he knew that but there wasn't really much he could do about it if I wouldn't tell him where I was. And I wanted to tell him so bad. But I'd told myself it was time for me to start to fight my own battles and I couldn't do that if Vince came to do it for me.  
  
"Letty. Come home. He'll come around. You know he's been in a funk lately. He just didn't think what he said through." Vince growled in his attempt at crooning to me. I'm the only girl this side of Mia he'll turn that beautiful voice onto in that tone. The tone that makes me think of people talking to scared animals. But if he has that tone of voice it means he cares about people too much so no one can know he has that voice stored away. But I know.  
  
"I think he knew what he was doing V. It seemed pretty well planned out and to be honest I was wishing he'd do something about how thing's had gotten for some time before he did it. I think I need some time for me as much as he needs his space to get over whatever it is he thinks us being apart will help him get over."  
  
"Ok, so both of you needed some space, some time apart. Did you really have to run away from us all Letty? Couldn't you have moved downstairs with Me'n Leon'n Jesse? Or got a place somewhere close by so we could still see you." Vince sighed in frustration.  
  
"I can't see him V. If I'm gonna get over him and get my life back then I needed to be in a place where I wouldn't see him at all. I just can't handle seeing him." This was Vince. I had to convince myself it was ok to tell him the rest. "I.I can't see him when he takes home other girls Vince. I can't see him moving on with his life. It would kill me to see that." I almost broke down again.  
  
"I don't think that's what he has in mind Let." Vince answered. "He's broken. He hasn't come out of his room since we got the story of where you were and what happened out of him. He's just in your room with the lights all off. I think I might have heard him cry."  
  
"Don't Vince."  
  
"Don't what Let?"  
  
"Don't try to make me feel bad for him. One, it was never our room. It was his room and he let me stay there with him because it was easier for him if I was already there when he wanted me then to have to come to my room and get me. Two, he's the one that didn't try. You know how hard all of the rest of us have been working to get back to normal. To put the past behind us. He's the only one who hasn't put the effort in Vince and you know it."  
  
"Yeah, but I don't know that he can put the effort in without you Let. And I don't know how to hold this team together without you either." I could hear the genuine worry in his voice.  
  
"You don't have to hold the team together V. That's his job. It's his team." I sneered, getting mad at Dom again. I was on an emotional rollercoaster and I really wanted off. I was happy one second, sad the next and madder then hell the next. And though it all I wanted Dom. I wanted to hold him, have him hold me. Kiss him on his bald head, his beautiful mouth. Watch him while he kissed me in all the places I liked.  
  
"But if he won't do it Letty then you know it's gonna fall apart around us all."  
  
Yeah, it likely would. But this was where taking care of me first came into play. I wouldn't be there to see it all fall apart because I couldn't be. I couldn't take it. Not only could I not take seeing Dom fall to pieces, I couldn't trust myself to stay strong enough not to fall back into comforting him if he did.  
  
"Much as I love you all V that's not my problem right now. He's been selfish for more years then I can count and I need my turn to be selfish for a while too. I'm sorry that in doing that I have to hurt you and the others too but I don't see a way around that." Vince sighed.  
  
"You're right Letty. You do deserve a chance to be happy. I just wish you could find your happiness somewhere that I could see you."  
  
"Me too Vince. But hey, it's not like I won't take him back. I think I will at least. If he comes around and looks me up when he's done finding himself or whatever he's doing and I haven't moved on by that time then I'll be willing to give him a second chance. Or maybe I'll move on and then I'll be able to come home again. If I can put in into a friend's role in my life then I can come home."  
  
"I just want things to go back the way they were."  
  
"Me too." I said to Vince and it was one of the most heartfelt things I've ever said. "So now that you and I have gotten that out of the way is there any way I can talk to Mia?" I had to try to explain to Mia too. God I miss her. I miss them all already. How am I ever going to do this? If I can't get through one day how can I get through weeks? Or months? Or maybe even years?  
  
"I'll get her." Vince says and I hear his bed springs creak as he gets up. I wonder why he was already in bed. I heard the familiar squeaking of the stairs up from his room in the basement as he walks up them and it breaks my heart a little more. That house is home. I know so much about it. The way the stairs squeak to the basement. The way to jiggle the light switch in the porch to get it to turn on. "Hey Mia. Phone." I hear Vince shout out.  
  
"Hello?" Her waivery voice comes across the line.  
  
"How you liven girl?" I ask her like I have so many times in the past.  
  
"Oh Letty. I'm so glad you're ok." She sobs out at me.  
  
"Of course I'm ok Mia. I'm really upset but otherwise ok."  
  
"When you coming home Letty? We miss you already."  
  
"I know and I miss you all too but I don't know when I'm coming home. I can't come back till he decides he wants me back and I can't come back till I know I'm ready to go." I didn't have a better answer then that for myself, let alone for Mia.  
  
"He misses you so much already Let. The fact that you left is killing him inside. He never expected you to up and leave and now he thinks he drove you away from us, from your family."  
  
"I know that Mia. But you guys must know that I can't stay and watch him live his life. Especially not if that life should ever involve bringing other women home. That there's no way I can move on if I have to see him every day. You must understand that Mia. I mean you must get it almost better then anyone else."  
  
"I understand totally Letty but it doesn't make it any easier."  
  
"No it doesn't. But it makes it make sense." I answered her back. And it did make sense for me to leave. But it making sense didn't make it any easier, Mia was right.  
  
"Where you going?" She asked me next. No doubt so she can send Vince after me. But I don't know where I'm going so I can't really answer her anyway.  
  
"I don't know yet Mia. But I'll call again when I get there ok?"  
  
"You better. Any messages?"  
  
"Tell Jesse to keep on designing my new car because I'll be coming home to have him build it with me some day. Tell Leon that he can't marry his car and he needs to find a real woman for himself. Tell Vince to look out for himself for a change and tell Dom that." Tell Dom what? What did I want her to tell Dom I'd said. I knew I wanted her to tell him something. "Tell Dom that if he ever wants to get us back he has to put in the work this time. He can't just sail out of this one and he has to realize that he can't just have his way all the time, that some things are worth working for, worth fighting for." I paused for a breath.  
  
"I'll tell them all Letty. I love you."  
  
"I love you too Mi. Get some rest. I'm going to and then I'm going to try to figure out where I'm going. I promise I'll call when I get there.  
  
"You better." She answered and hung up. I hung up too and just looked at the phone for a minute before I crawled under the covers and turned out the light with a sigh. I wished for the thousandth time that day that Dom was there to hold my hand and make this better. But he wasn't here, he wasn't going to be there with me for a long time and it was time I accepted that fact and tried to move on.  
  
But it was still with thoughts of Dom and our life that I fell asleep with. It was his name I called out in the night when a bad dream woke me. And it was his name I sobbed out while no one was there to comfort me or dry my tears or hold my hand. As the whole day came crashing back onto me one more time I curled up into a ball in the center of the bed and wished for Vince, Leon, Mia, Jesse, anyone who could make me feel a little less alone.  
  
It's a very scary feeling to leave the center of a team like mine and strike out on your own. I'd never been totally alone before. When it finally hit me that I was totally and utterly alone in the world it broke me again. I cried and cried and cried. I'd thought I was done crying but I guess I was wrong. I finally fell asleep, curled in on myself, hugging a pillow for dear life. 


	3. Who am I?

Chapter 3 - Who am I?  
  
I woke up around lunch time the day after 'the day'. I had a splitting headache and I could just tell I looked like shit even thought I had yet to go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. I just lay in bed for few minutes and it took those few minutes for the previous days events to crash over me. For the first minute I wondered what I was doing in a motel room without Dom.  
  
When I remembered that I was only in the motel because Dom had left me I crashed to earth and hit hard. But I was done crying. I'd cried all the tears that Dom deserved to have shed over him the day before. I knew that hoping never to cry over this whole situation again was asking too much but it was all that got me out of bed so I kept telling myself I was done crying. That I was going to be ok. I got up, headed to the bathroom and confirmed the fact that I did, in fact look like shit.  
  
I washed my face and tried to clean up as best I could. Then I headed back into the main room and looked around. It was even more horribly decorated in the daylight then it had been in the glare from the street lights and the soft lamplight of the night before.  
  
I went to my duffle and started to look through it for something to wear. Every item of clothing I owned reminded me of Dom. Everything I'd ever bought I'd had what he'd think of me wearing it in mind. When had I become so pathetic? I mean, when did I start living more for Dom then for myself? It had to change.  
  
But for now I had no choice but wear the cloths I had with me, but as soon as I got where I was going I was going shopping. I had money from the shit in the bank. I hadn't spent any of it out of principle. It seemed wrong some how after we almost got Vince killed and drove Brian away over that money to spend it then. To spend it on frivolous things. I mean if someone had needed surgery and the only way to pay for it was to spend that money then it wouldn't have been an issue for me. But to take it and spend it on cloths and the cars seemed wrong to me.  
  
It was dirty money all along but it really seemed dirty to me after that day in August. It has been so easy to forget where the money had come from up till then, so easy to forget it wasn't honest, that we hadn't worked for it. It was almost like it had been all fun, games, and big thrills up till that awful day were everything went wrong and the fact that what we were doing was neither fun, nor a game was forced to the forefront most painfully.  
  
But never the less, I had that money and I was very fuckin glad I did. I'd need it to find a place to live and to support myself while I waited to get a job where ever it was I was going. All I knew was fixing cars but thanks to Dom's dad, Dom and Jesse I was quite good at it. I hoped that I'd be able to get a job with cars where ever it was I was going. I figured on just driving till I ended up someplace that sounded ok to stay in for awhile. I didn't want to just drive over the country aimlessly for the next weeks, months or years. I wanted to find a place I could try to be happy for the time.  
  
I knew I was kidding myself there. As much as Dom and I fight I know he's my life. I'm really not sure I know how to be happy without him. And that's a problem isn't it? No one should ever have to look at their life and realize that their happiness is dependant on some other person being a part of their life. You really need to know how to make yourself happy before you can even worry about making other people happy too. And that too was part of our problem, Dom's and mine. Neither of us knew how to make ourselves happy let alone each other. I think we could have learned how together, but since it seems that he thinks he has to learn how alone I'll go try to learn how on my own too.  
  
I just hope that someday when we both learn how to be happy on our own we can be happy together again. But in the meantime I'm going to try and get on with my life. I'm the tough girl after all. It should be easy. That's a nice thought but I know it's not going to be anything close to easy.  
  
As I pulled on my underwear I realized that they were the same ones that I'd worn on the day we all met Brian. The day Dom told him not to come around anymore. The day that yet again he threw my affection in my face. Sometimes he seemed to like it when I was attentive like that and other times he acted like I was smothering him. I wish just once he'd have given me enough attention to feel like he was smothering me.  
  
Instead of saying 'Thanks anyway baby but I just got a drink, come say hello to me.' He just holds up the can and doesn't even spare me a look. He doesn't look up to see how much his callous treatment hurts me inside. Even if I do just slide my glasses back up my nose and stand off to the side. Thinking. It's not the first time he's been mean to me and it won't be the last. I've become quite good at standing there and pretending that what he says and does doesn't matter. But it really does matter and that's often what I'm thinking about.  
  
The way it took him forever to go and break up Vince and Brian drove me crazy too. But at least it was me who finally got him to go with my exasperated 'Dom!' Then I followed him out of the store with an apologetic glance at Mia and went to go help Leon calm Dom down if he should take it into his head to beat on the poor guy who was actually holding his own against Vince in the street. That said something about Brian right there. Vince could really fight. I think that was the beginning of Dom's softening toward Brian right there. The boy could fight, protect himself. That almost meant he had to be use to doing so. And that made him like us.  
  
Then that very night at races the way Dom grabbed the blond girl around the waist and let all of them hang on him. Right in front of me. How was that ok? Then when I got mad about it, like he knew I was going to he gave me one of those looks. Like I was embarrassing him by chasing off the skanks but he wasn't embarrassing me by doing what he did in the first place. I'm honestly grinning about what I said though. "I smell, *sniff sniff* skanks. Why don't you girls just pack it up before I leave tread marks on your face?" That was the best line I ever came up with.  
  
Some times I think he just did stuff like that with the skanks to try and drive me into a rage. He got off on it. I know he did. I guess I did too in some ways because the sex I knew we'd have after such an incident would always be wild. Plus I was his trophy. Me. Not them but me. He'd actually showed me affection and picked me up that night. Called me his trophy in front of other people and picked me up and kissed me right there. I sometimes wonder if it didn't have something to do with the fact that Vince and I had been joking around, having a good time right up till he grabbed me and he was maybe jealous of Vince and I having a good time together. But who knows.  
  
I pulled on my combat pants and then my black bra and a red singlet. It was time to move on. I packed up the meagre amount of stuff I'd bothered to unpack the night before and headed down to the office. I paid for my room and then got into my car. I headed off. East again.  
  
It was like something was pulling me east. I didn't know why I was driving east, not north or south but I was. I kept the car pointed east. I had no idea where I was going yet. I was just driving. I only stopped for gas and the washroom when I had no choice. I made it into Mississippi before I stopped for another rest. I got another motel room and again just took a hot shower and went to fall into bed.  
  
Then I got an attack of conscious and I dialled our number again. I couldn't let them worry. I really should be able to. I'm still mad at Dom. But it's not about Dom at this point. It's about the team. And it's about me. I need to know they miss me almost as much as I don't want to worry Mia and the guys.  
  
I dialled the number smoothly this time though. No hesitation. I still didn't want to talk to Dom but I figured the team would know that and one of the others would go out of their way to answer.  
  
It rang three times before Leon picked up. "Yo."  
  
It wouldn't be Leon if he didn't answer the phone with yo. "Hey Leon." I tried to sound upbeat.  
  
"Let. Where the hell are you?" He asked me and I can hear the upset in his voice. He didn't get a chance to yell at me yesterday so I understand where he's coming from.  
  
"I'm on the road. Well, I'm in a cheap motel right now." I giggled at him. I'm really starting to feel better. Or the stress is getting to me. Take your pick.  
  
"That's not what I mean and you know it. What's the big idea taking off without saying good bye? Hell, what's the big idea taking off at all?"  
  
"Leon." I sighed. I didn't need this. It was strange for Leon to give me such a hard time. "I had to go. I didn't want to. I had to. I just wanted to let you guys know I'm still ok. But still not sure where I'm going."  
  
"I know baby girl. I know you had to leave but I still wish you could've stayed."  
  
"Well me too Leon. Just do me a few favours ok?"  
  
"Anything baby girl."  
  
"Take care of him for me Leon. Try to help him find whatever it is he needs to find for me ok? I really think I'm going to be ok."  
  
"For sure Letty. If you're ok then come home."  
  
"I need this time Leon. I'll come back someday. I'm not going to call again for awhile ok. But I'll let you guys know if I need anything."  
  
We shared a few more words but most of it just catching up and killing time because we didn't want to let the contact go. He put Vince on and we just chatted for a few minutes and I did the same with Mia and Jesse.  
  
While I was talking to them I did feel better but then when I let them all go I was as lonely as ever. It made me realize just what I'd really given up when I gave up my life in California. But a new future was out there waiting for me somewhere. I went to bed and slept the sleep of the justifiably tired all night. No nightmares and no waking up. I woke up the next day still feeling down but not as bad as it had been.  
  
I was on the road within half an hour of waking up. Nothing about Mississippi recommended it to me as a permanent place to live. I wasn't far enough away from Dom yet either. But I didn't see anything about Mississippi that made we want to stop there.  
  
As the miles flew by I thought. I had nothing else to do and unlike most people when I crank the tunes way up it puts me even deeper into my own little world. It's like loud music helps me think. My thoughts drifted back to the first time I ever laid eyes on Dominic Toretto.  
  
I was ten. And I'd just turned 10 like a week before I moved in. We had to move because my father got a new job. Like he'd ever hold it for more then a few months anyway. But still he'd finally gotten a new job so we had to move to follow it. We moved into a house that wasn't as nice as the Toretto's but still nicer then the one we'd left.  
  
On our first day in the new neighbourhood as often happened my mom and my dad started to go in at each other. It didn't matter over what, but I think that day it was over the fact that she wanted to start shooting up and he wanted her to stay clean for the first while at least till the new neighbours had met us.  
  
But if I'd waited around the house when he got tired of hitting her about it he'd start hitting me. But if I left in the middle of the fight they'd never notice and most of the time they'd be done by the time I got home. So I hopped on my bike with my little kit bag full of 'Hot Wheels' and headed off down the street. About 7 houses down I rode past a white house with a big truck and trailer out front and a kind looking man washing what was obviously a stock racing car in the driveway.  
  
I stopped my bike and just watched him from the sidewalk for about 10 minutes. And he knew I was there the whole time but it was like he knew I was shy. I bet that's hard to believe now but despite all the bravo I show sometimes meeting new people is hard for me. So I come off like a stuck up bitch a lot of the time. But it's really just the fact that I've been disrespected for being me so much that I almost take it in stride and I don't trust people out the gate. It's like every girl hates me for having Dom and every guy who doesn't want to fuck me hates me for being a better racer. But anyway, it was even harder for me to meet new people back then. That was before I got confidence and grew the really thick skin. So I just sat on my bike and watched him wash his car.  
  
Oh man I wanted to help. I wanted to help and I wanted to ask him so many questions. I loved cars but we never had anything less then 15 years old at our house and they only lasted a few months before they died and had to be replaced. I don't know to this day where my love of cars came from but I'm willing to bet that it was fate making sure I'd survive childhood. Because if I hadn't found the Toretto's and cars through them I wouldn't have.  
  
Then when I was about to move on because I figured if the man hadn't acknowledged me by then he wasn't going to he called out.  
  
"Hello."  
  
"Hi." I answered him back and lowered my eyes. I might've wanted to talk to him more then anything but I was still shy.  
  
"What's your name?" He asked and smiled at me. He had the kindest smile I've ever seen.  
  
"Letitia." I told him.  
  
"That's pretty, but it's an awfully long name for such a small girl."  
  
"You can call me Letty." I told him and the look in his eyes started to put me at ease.  
  
"Well Letty. That's a pretty name. What's in the bag?"  
  
"My cars." I told him shyly.  
  
"You like cars?"  
  
"Oh yes." I breathed out. "More then anything. Yours is cool." His smile got even bigger. I smiled back but quickly hid it when I remembered I'd lost one of my front teeth the week before. My dad's fault but it was a baby tooth and it had been loose anyway.  
  
"Well thank you Letty. Would you like to help me finish washing it? My son normally helps me but he went to play in the park with his friend Vince." I couldn't answer him so I just nodded.  
  
He gave me a wash mitt and my own small bucket of soap. I washed all the low parts of the car and he washed the high. Then he showed me how to dry the car. It was the best afternoon of my life. I kid you not. I got to be a kid. I didn't know that day just how often I'd wish that Giovanni Toretto was my dad too over the next 3 years.  
  
Of course three years later was when I started to have feelings for Dom that I didn't have when I was 10 and then I was glad we didn't have the same father.  
  
As we washed and dried the car Mr. Toretto asked me all sorts of stuff. I think he figured out from the way I was that things weren't great at home. He was an awesome dad. Mia and Dom know full well how lucky they were. I'm thankful for ever second of every minute that I got to have him in my life. The Toretto's showed me what family life should be like. At least, no matter what else, I know that my life wasn't normal and I hope if I ever have kids I'll make a better mom then mine did.  
  
Just as we finished drying the car and I was looking at it with wonder on my face wishing that the nice man would take me for a ride in it the prettiest girl I'd ever seen walked out of the Toretto house.  
  
"Who's that daddy?" She asked with a hesitant smile.  
  
"This is Letitia. Her family just moved in down the street. Say hello Mia."  
  
"Hi. I'm Mia."  
  
"I'm Letty." I told her. I didn't think there was a hope in hell me and this girl were ever going to get along and I was so upset because if I didn't get along with the girl I wouldn't be able to hang out with her cool dad. But she had long flowing black hair and big black eyes and she was wearing a dress. Me and the pretty girly girls didn't often get along. But I really wanted to get along with Mia and it was more then just because of her dad. Can't put my finger on what it was to this day but I knew I really wanted to know Mia Toretto.  
  
"Do you like dolls? You can come play with my Barbies with me if you want." I didn't like Barbies but I didn't want to piss off the girl who owned the dad with the cool cars. Plus there was something in her eyes. Like she'd been playing alone for far too long. I knew how she felt.  
  
"I've never played Barbies. Will you show me how?"  
  
"Sure." And with the sunniest smile I've ever seen to this day Mia Toretto dragged me into her house, up to her room and started to teach me about doing Barbie hair and picking out Barbie outfits. It was the first of many afternoons filled with girly toys and I put up with it only because I really liked Mia.  
  
Like I said, she was my opposite but we were still best friends. She use to play race cars with me too and it was just as bad for her as Barbies were for me. On that afternoon, after an hour of Barbies, the door of Mia's room was thrown open and a boy burst in.  
  
"Mia, dad wants to.Who's this?" The boy asked with a sneer.  
  
"This is Letty and she's my new best friend." Mia answered back then turned to me. "Never mind my brother. He's 14 and he thinks he's cool." Mia went back to braiding her dolls hair. I just looked at Dom. Much as Mia tells people I've always had a crush on him that's not true. But I always knew our futures were going to be tied together. Right from that first day. I was also shocked that I was now, after one hour of torture by Barbies, someone's best friend. I'd never been anyone's best friend. I'd never had one either.  
  
Dom just looked at me. I just looked back. I didn't know what was pulling me toward Dominic Toretto then and I still don't know what makes me want to be with him today. But there is something about him like gravity. But there's more then that to it for me. I can't explain it so I won't even try.  
  
"What's up with her? Is she stupid?" Dom asked his sister and I looked away. I already knew that tears didn't help much but his question hurt me that day to the point that I almost cried. And it had been a long time since anything made me cry. My dad had taught me quickly that all crying did was add to the beating he was giving out.  
  
"No lameo she just can't believe that anyone as ugly you is free to roam the streets. You're the stupid one. I don't want you around. You're a jerk and I don't want you to talk to my best friend like that." I was shocked that Mia said anything like that to anyone. She'd been the sweetest girl on earth up to that point. I would later find out that because she was so pretty and girly she didn't have a lot of friends in grade school and the chace to have a best girl was as important to her as the chance to interact with a real family was to me. But hearing her defend me was tough too. No one had ever stuck up for me before and Mia sticking up for me against this bully, even if it was her own brother was about the nicest thing that anyone had ever done for me. I was going to break down and cry. The more I thought about it the harder it was not to cry. I tugged on one of my pigtail braids and reached for my bag.  
  
I needed to hold onto one of my cars. I knew that would calm me down. It always did after my dad was done with me. It had to be the purple car. I don't think it was any specific kind of car but it was purple and it had two doors. It was always in the little zipper bag part at the top of the kitbag because I didn't want to have to search for it. So without looking I got the bag open and got out my car.  
  
I started to spin the wheels with my thumb. Round and round. Waiting for his stupid comment to stop hurting. And I could tell he was still standing there, still staring at me.  
  
I shot Mia a glance and she was looking at me with apology. "Say you're sorry Dominic. Tell my best friend you're sorry."  
  
"I will n."  
  
"Sorry for what?' Mr. Toretto interrupted from the door.  
  
"Nothin'" Dom answered belligerently with a look at Mia warning her to keep her mouth shut. A look she didn't heed.  
  
"Dominic called Letty stupid." Mia tattled happily.  
  
"Dominic Giovanni Toretto! You will say you're sorry and then you will go to your room. Vince, you'll need to go home now. Dominic is as of this moment grounded for a week. No phone, no TV, and no friends over."  
  
I knew this was not good. Dom was going to hate me already and we'd just met. I'd have been ok. Mia didn't need to tell on him for me. But I know now that siblings need to fight and that was just the normal order of things. But Mia had dragged me into it and there was nothing I could do about it. I just wanted Dom to go away by that time. I sure as hell didn't want anyone to force him to apologize.  
  
"I'm sorry Letty. I didn't mean it." He didn't sound as angry as I would have thought. The apology didn't seem as forced as I would have figured. I looked up at him then and it was like he saw the tears in my eyes. Even though I'd blinked them down and calmed down with my purple car he knew how bad he'd hurt me. With a glance at his dad he sat down beside me on the floor and held out his hand. "Can I see your car?" I handed it over without a word. "This is a nice car. Do you like cars?" I nodded.  
  
"Yeah. I'm gonna own one just like this some day and I'm gonna race it. I'm gonna be the fastest girl in LA."  
  
"Why'd you let Mia sucker you into playing with dolls then?"  
  
"I like Mia." I smiled at her. "I like playing dolls with her." Mia grinned back. Dom handed me back my car.  
  
"Well Letty, that's a really nice car you have there. And I'm really sorry that I said what I did."  
  
I looked up at him and our eyes met. My dark brown eyes met his black eyes and I swear, even if I didn't know what I was looking at then I know now it was my future. "It's ok."  
  
"No it's not. And while I'm very proud of my son for his sincere apology and happy you've accepted it, what he said to you was still very wrong." Mr. Toretto held out his hand for Dom to leave the room with him.  
  
"I'm sorry you got in trouble." I whispered to Dom as he went to get up.  
  
"I'm sorry I was a jerk. And don't worry. You're gonna get me in a lot more trouble someday." And then with a wink he left the room with his dad.  
  
"My brother's such an idiot." Mia said as the door closed. "You really like cars huh?"  
  
"Yeah. Don't you? And your brother's not so bad."  
  
"I like it when my daddy takes me to the track and sometimes takes me for a fast drive but I don't like cars the way that Dom and dad like cars. I like my dolls better. Where are you going to school?"  
  
Mia's always switched topics that fast. It's scary even now. I told her the name of the school I was going to be in.  
  
"Hey that's where I go! Who's class are you in?"  
  
I told her.  
  
"Me too. You must be 10 too."  
  
"I am 10. When's your birthday?"  
  
"In two days. You'll have to come to my party. When's yours?"  
  
"I just had mine three days ago." I didn't get a party. There hadn't been time for one, not that they would have given me one anyway.  
  
"That's so cool. You're only 5 days older then me. We need to go tell dad." With that she jumped up and grabbed my hand and dragged me down to the living room. "Dad. Guess what? Letty is only 5 days older then I am. She's going to come to my party if it's ok."  
  
"She'll have to ask her folks Mia."  
  
"And she's in my class at school too. Isn't that cool?" Mia carried on like her dad had never spoke. "You go ask if you can come to my party!" She told me. I did have to go home but of course I went to her party. And I brought her a new Barbie even if I hated to buy it even for Mia. And that started it. I was always at the Toretto house. I was never home if I could help it. And Mia and I were almost inseparable. Except when I hung out around the cars with Mr. Toretto.  
  
For the first while Dom was nice to me but never more then nice. I was just Mia's little friend. But he watched out for me subtly too. He hoped no one would notice. And he did act like I was a pest around his guy friends. All but Vince. And sometimes he acted like he didn't want me around while he helped his dad work on their race car. But Mr. Toretto always included me in car related stuff. I think he knew I was as car crazy as Dom and he liked to have a girl around that liked cars. I knew more about cars by 12 then some people ever know.  
  
I met Vince a few days after I met the Toretto's and it was love at first sight. Not that kind of love. I was only 10. Vince took care of me and never acted like I was a pest. But Vince got much of the same treatment at home and he knew how it was. That started my great relationship with V. Much as I've always seen Mia like a sister, I never saw Dom as a brother. That was always Vince.  
  
I shook myself out of my daydream and realized that I had entered Alabama and I was faced with a choice. Turn north toward New York or go south toward Miami.  
  
Now, New York is about as far from Dom as I could get. But it was also cold, and had a crappy racing scene. Remember when I told Dom I was going to be the fastest girl racer in LA? Well, I hadn't been lying. I had been the fastest girl racer in LA. Faster then a lot of the guys too. Not only that but I was going to be the fastest girl in whatever city I ended up in. And Miami, with it's population of old people and nice beaches sounded better then New York and it's snow and boredom. I made the right for Miami. This time there was no Dom to hold me back. I could race as much as I wanted.  
  
So that was where I was driving, Miami. Good to know. I smiled for the first time since I'd left. Welcome to Miami and Buenvenidos a Miami. I drove again till I found a half decent looking motel and pulled in. I got settled in and then decided that sitting in a motel room wasn't going to do me any good so I decided to go explore my new home.  
  
A few hours later I stood in the middle of a mall staring at people walking by me as I tried to decide where to go shop first. I knew I wanted new clothes but I didn't know what to buy or where to buy it. After another moment of watching people go about their lives around me and ignore me I walked into a store.  
  
It was a strange feeling and it bothered me more then it should but in LA at least some people would have pointed and whispered 'That's Letty. That's Dom Toretto's girlfriend.' Here no one knew me and no one cared who I was. That was grounding. But also I was sick of being known as Dom Toretto's girl. I was a person in my own right. Besides that, half the people who said 'that's Dom's girl' went on to say and Dom cheats on her every chance he gests. I got over yet another round of self pity and started entering stores.  
  
I did some shopping and it was hard to think of my clothes in terms of what I liked instead of what would make Dom sit up and take notice. But I pretty much ended up with the same kind of cloths I'd always bought.  
  
It turns out I like the way I dress. But it was nice to have new clothes that I picked out with only me in mind. I took my new clothes out to my car and got in. Then I started looking around for any cars that I thought might give me a clue where races were. There had to be races and I was going to find them.  
  
Dom didn't like to let me race too much at home. I don't really know why. It was one of those things I knew would be a big fight if I asked him about it. So I just didn't. I've guessed that it was either because he was scared someday I might race him and win or because he wanted me to be his trophy girl not a racer girl. I could be wrong but I really bet it has something to do with one or the other.  
  
I spotted a tricked out Toyota MR-2 and followed him till he stopped. As he got out of his car so did I.  
  
"Hey pretty lady." Guys are all the same. Why is it they think that a line like that is going to work on a girl like me? I mean, this is going to sound stuck up but, I'm not ugly. It's not like I haven't heard pickup lines before. Why do guys like him suppose that a lame line like that is going to work with me. Plus, look at my car. I'm not a racer chaser. I think it's pretty obvious. But I want to know where races are so I can't piss him off. Yet.  
  
"Hey yourself." I almost choked on the words. I wanted to call him down to the lowest. I wanted to challenge him to a race right then and there. I reminded myself I always raced better when I had some frustration to work off.  
  
"You must be new around here because I know everyone that's worth knowing and I know if I'd seen your face I'd have gotten to know you better. And I can tell already you are worth knowing." He said this profound statement to my boobs. Smooth.  
  
"Well, thanks. I am new in town and I'm wondering where to get hooked up for races." I tried to keep the smile on my face. Man it was hard. I wanted to kick him in the nuts. I'm not use to this. No one in LA would dare talk to me like this guy was or stare at my chest because Dom would kick their ass. If he didn't kill them instead.  
  
"You race?" He asked me. He was clearly underestimating me.  
  
"Yep. I didn't build that car to go to church on Sunday." I was finding it really hard to keep my cool. I mean, I've had the last few days from hell and now some over sexed vato is giving me a hard time about if I race or not. Damn. Just tell me where races are and shut up or tell me to go to hell. He laughed.  
  
"I don't know where you've been racing at chica but around here the competition is tight."  
  
"I'm from LA. It doesn't get any tighter then that." I refuse to tell them I know Dom. If they know of him and bring up his name then I'm going to pretend I know of him, not that I know him. The guy shared a look with his homie who was now standing on the other side of the car.  
  
"LA huh." I simply nodded. "Check out this address." He scribbled something down then handed me the card. "They'll be racing of some form tonight around 12. Don't be late if you want in on it."  
  
"Thanks man." I moved to get back into my car. I really didn't want to fight these guys after all. They were just acting how the typical woman let them get away with around races. The girls like me are the rarity. Most of the girls that go to races are there to see and be seen. And to go home with whoever is the winner of the evening. That was how Dom got so many skanks after all.  
  
But when girls let guys act like these two were acting it gave them ideas that it was ok. And normally I'd school them a little on why not to assume every girl they meet is a racer chaser but telling them off and kicking their butts but I'm not in the mood anymore.  
  
"See you there baby." He made that god damn kissing face at me the idiot from race wars had made.  
  
"I'm not your baby and I'm never gonna be so chill out bro. I'm not a skank." I moved in a step closer.  
  
"No you're not a skank. That's why you deserve to be wit me. I'm the best." The guy was so cocky it was making me irate.  
  
"You're not the best cause I've had the best and he didn't look anything like you." I quipped back.  
  
"If you gave me a chance I'd prove you wrong about that baby. You come watch me race tonight and when I win I'll give you the honour of congratulating me."  
  
"How bout I come to races tonight, race you for slips, beat you and take your car?" The guy gave me a dirty look and his friend went 'whooooooow.'  
  
"You're on. You win you take my car. I win you and I have a private celebration of my victory back at my place." The guy smirked.  
  
"See you at 12." I got back in my car and fired it up, squealing out of the parking lot. I wanted to make that guy regurgitate his nuts but I knew it would be both better on my pride and easier on my knuckles to settle it on the black top. I didn't have Mia to nurse my hurts anymore. And I knew if I'd been able to beat Leon once or twice then I could easily beat the guy in the MR-2.  
  
It felt good to be doing something that Dom wouldn't approve of either. But this was part of finding myself and how to make myself happy. And Dom wasn't around to have a say in it. I have myself wondering just who Letitia is. I'm going to find out. 


	4. Purple Silvia's

Chapter 4 - Purple Silvia's  
  
I went back to my room and unloaded the car. I'd been in Miami for about two hours and I felt like I'd gotten a lot done. I had new clothes and an address where to find races. Life was good. Well, ok, no it wasn't. But it was looking better then it had in Texas and Mississippi.  
  
I'd bought some beer while I was out and I grabbed one and plopped down on my bed. I twisted the top off a corona and started to pull back the golden liquid. I figured I'd have two or three then call Mia.  
  
I had lots of time to sober up before races if I got a slight buzz on before I called her. I didn't want to tell her where I was. I still felt that it was important I spend some time on my own. I knew if I told Mia where I was she'd have Vince on the next plane out here. She wouldn't even let him take the time to drive. She'd make him fly and drive home with me.  
  
And like I've said, I wanted V to come and get me more then anything. But I also knew that it was important for me to do this on my own for awhile. If Dominic and I were going to have a chance at a future together then I had to find out who I was before I went back to him.  
  
Because next time, if there was one, I had to be Letty who happened to date Dom. Not Dom's girlfriend Letty. I think we'd gotten to the point of taking each other for granted. It can't happen any more if we get back together. When we get back together. I need to hold on to that thought.  
  
Three coronas later I was ready to call. It was the last time I was going to be speaking to the guys and Mia for a long time I had a feeling and I wanted to get enough of a V, Mia, Leon and Jesse fix to last me for awhile. After this it was just Let, Letty and Letitia. I picked up the phone and dialled our number. It was only 6pm in LA and there was every chance that Dom would answer. So another way I'd guess I'll know when I'm ready to go back is when the thoughts of talking to Dom on the phone don't scare the shit out of me.  
  
The phone only rang once before it was answered.  
  
"Hello." I breathed a sigh of relief. Mia.  
  
"Hey Mia. How you livin' girl?" It was tradition. Poor Mia wouldn't know what to do if I didn't ask her that.  
  
"Letty. Thank god you called. I've been so worried about you. Where are you now?"  
  
"I'm where I am Mia." Cryptic huh?  
  
"Letty, you told me you'd tell me where you were when you got where you were going."  
  
"I know I did Mia but I've realized something." I can't tell her that I want to be alone. One, it's a lie and two, she'll be hurt. I wonder what to do about the whole thing. I have to tell her something.  
  
"Do tell." Mia said with sarcasm. She was never as nice when she was worried. I didn't feel like answering her, so I launched into our favourite story.  
  
"Member the first day we ever met?"  
  
"Of course." Mia sighed. This was old news and I new she wanted me to get to the point.  
  
"Well, ever since then you guys have been taking care of me. I need to take care of myself for awhile."  
  
"Letty, you're not making sense. You take care of yourself. You're the toughest girl I know. Gosh, you took care of me all through school, all through Dom's sentence, all through Bri." She trailed off. I knew how much she hated to think of Brian and what he'd done. "We love you because you're family but we haven't been taking care of you."  
  
"Yes Mia, you have. Dom and Vince have been taking care of me for a long time. I need some time alone to take care of myself all alone for awhile."  
  
"Letty. We need you. We might take care of you but you take care of us too. I'm not sure I can do it without you. I can't carry the team without you Let.I need you. You're strong for both of us."  
  
"And you're caring for both of us Mia and that won't change. It's just going to have to take a break for awhile." I decided to try and change the subject.  
  
"So how is everything going?"  
  
"How do you think? Letty, we're not a whole team without you." Mia was getting very close to tears. I didn't know what to do. Then I got an idea. I'd forgotten something when I left and it might just cheer Mia up.  
  
"Mia. I'll be back. I swear. I want you to do me a favour. Go into the kitchen. I know you're on the cordless phone so go." I heard her walking.  
  
"Ok. I'm there. Now what?"  
  
"Who's that?" I heard HIM ask in the background.  
  
"No one." She answered. "A friend from school." She didn't want to share me with him and I was glad. I didn't want to talk to him anyway. I heard him huff but he let it drop.  
  
"Ok, go out the back door." I heard the screen door slam as she complied with me.  
  
"Ok." She told me from the backyard.  
  
"Go into the shed."  
  
"The shed. Why?"  
  
"Humour me." I chuckled at Mia giving me attitude. Should be the other way around.  
  
"Ok. I'm in the shed." I could picture the shed. It was big and empty and sad without Van's charger in it. All it had was parts for the car lying in wait. Waiting for Van or Dom to pull the car in and pop the hood and start working on that mammoth engine. Waiting for one of them to put the slicks on the huge rear wheels and take it to the track to try and beat 9 seconds. But the car was gone and it wasn't ever coming back. Neither was Van. Dom I wasn't sure about.  
  
"Go to the left and look on the bookshelf for a book called Chilton Repair Manual 1968-73."  
  
"I see it." Mia was clearly confused. I hope my surprise goes over as well as I hope it will.  
  
"Take it off the shelf and feel in behind it."  
  
"Ok." I heard the book move. "Letty." She started to cry. I knew she'd found what I sent her to find.  
  
"So Mia. You know if you have my purple car that I'm coming back. Remember what I told you about that car?"  
  
"That it was your favourite thing in the whole world and you'd never give it away or lose it." She sniffled.  
  
"Right. And I'm coming back for it someday. But till then you can hold on to it for me." So much for no more tears. I was on the verge again. Mia knew why that car was so important to me.  
  
"I love you Let. We're not the same with out you. Dom's not the same. He's so sad all the time Letty."  
  
"And all he has to do is tell me he's found what ever it was he was looking for. Then I'll come home. But not a second before." She must have walked back into the house because I heard Dom ask her.  
  
"What do you have Mia?"  
  
"Nothing Dom." She snapped back at him. Then I heard Vince. He must have seen what Mia had clutched in her hand because he followed her to the living room.  
  
"Let me talk to her Mia."  
  
"You want to talk to Vince?" She asked me. Did I?  
  
"Sure. You gonna be ok girl?" I wanted to know before I let her go that she wasn't going to fly to pieces.  
  
"If I tell you no will you come back now?"  
  
"Yeah. But only if you really really mean it Mia. Only if you still want me to come back right now if you know how much it'll hurt me to come back. If you know how bad it'll hurt me to come back now and you still need me then I'll come back. I'm the strong one, remember. I can handle it. If you really need me to." I meant it. If Mia could tell me she really needed me to come back after that speech I'd do it.  
  
"I'm gonna be ok for a while Letty. I'll try to be like you." Bad idea, I thought but I didn't tell her that. I just told her good girl and waited for her to hand the phone to V.  
  
"Hey baby girl."  
  
"Hey V." It was good to hear his voice.  
  
"You doin' ok?"  
  
"Yep. I've arrived. Settled in. Did some shopping. I'm goin racin tonight."  
  
"Sounds like you're having fun while we miss you." Vince laughed though.  
  
"Hey Bro, I'm on vacation." I giggled. Vince can pull me out of my bad moods most of the time.  
  
"Sure. Sure. So, where are you?" He was trying to make it sound like he was just curious so I'd tell him where I was.  
  
"We're not going there V. I'm where I am and you guys'll know when I'm ready to tell you all."  
  
"Alright. So you let Mia have your car eh? That was nice of you."  
  
"Nope. I didn't let her have it. I let her hold onto it. You know I'll never give that car away Vince."  
  
"I know Letty." Like he knew I wanted to get off the phone before Dom got up his courage and asked to speak to me he started to begin the process of letting me go. "I know you said you weren't going to call much, but don't do that ok. Call me. I need to know that you're ok, even if I don't know where you are. If I think you're not ok I'm going to have Jesse try to find you. But if I know you're safe I'll stop him and let you have your space. Comprende?"  
  
"Ok V. I'll call every few weeks. I'm not committing to more then that." I couldn't. Every call increased the chance of him answering the phone or asking to speak to me.  
  
"Ok." He sighed. He'd wanted a better promise out of me but I didn't have one to give. We said our I love you's and hung up.  
  
And of course the whole thing with Mia got me thinking about the purple car. Now I imagine it's obvious it's THE purple car. The one I showed Dom on the day I met him. That's not why it's so special though.  
  
It called to me. The day I saw it in Walmart I knew I had to have it. It was the one thing I risked my dad's wrath and whined for. I had to have it. I was 8 when I got it. And from the day it left the package it was never off my person. It was always in my pocket, or in my bag. I always had it within grabbing distance. Till I got something better, but I'll tell that story later. But I still kept the car. It meant too much to me not to.  
  
I wanted a car just like it. I wanted to own that car. If there'd been a way for me to make that car big enough for me to drive I would have. When I was young I told anyone who'd listen I was going to own a real car just like it someday. As I got older I realized everyone was saying 'yeah right' in their heads and I stopped telling people. But I still felt that way. It was among the first things I ever told Dom after all.  
  
Dom never forgot it. As time went on we became closer friends and slowly but surely he hated me being around less. And as time went on it became more and more obvious to me I was never going to own my car which made all those doubters right. But my family had no money and I couldn't get a job to work to save up because my dad wouldn't let me. So I had to put my plans on hold for the car. But it hurt. And plus, while I didn't know what kind of car my toy was I could tell that any car that would look just like it would be a very expensive car.  
  
And even then I still held on to the little purple car. I lost most of my other 'Hot Wheels' but never the purple one. Dom knew. I think he knew how sad I was that I wasn't getting my car any time soon too. I wanted a car, any car, for my 16th but I knew it wasn't going to happen. My family still had no money. I knew my family was doing what they always did for my birthday. Nothing. But I figured that Mr. Toretto would have a special dinner for me like he always had, ever since my 11th birthday. He told me once he was sorry that he missed out on 10. But he never missed another one. Well, not while he was still with us.  
  
Dom had been taking Mia and I to races every once in awhile already, behind Van's back of course. It was making it even worse because there were all these nice cars there and I knew none of them would ever be mine. I had a burning desire to drive all of them and race all of them. I knew even then when I didn't know how to drive that I wanted to race. It called to me. It had since the first time Van had taken me for a spin in his stock car. It got worse when Dom let me ride along in his RX-7 while he street raced one night he took us to races. It didn't matter though because I was never getting a car I could use to race. It was looking pretty hopeless.  
  
The day of my 16th birthday was sunny and hot. Dom was 20 and he worked for his dad in their garage so most days he'd drive Mia and I to school before he went to work. I was always at their house anyway. I stayed in Mia's room most nights. Mia and I were pretty much inseparable even then. We had other friends by then but Mia and I were like sisters. Dom drove us to school and told us not to leave at the end of the day that he wanted to come get us. That was strange but not unpleasant. Dom was already one of those guys with a reputation and us knowing him wasn't a bad thing. Getting picked up out front in his RX-7 was going to be cool.  
  
I could hardly make it through that day in school I was so excited about Dom coming to get us. But I made it and sure enough when we burst out the front doors of the school there was the bright red car, it's owner leaning with studied indifference against the side.  
  
"Hey Dom!" Mia called out.  
  
"Hi girls. How was school?"  
  
"You must remember Dom. You haven't been done so long yourself." I teased him. He'd missed a few classes and it had taken him an extra year to finish. He had the good grace to blush.  
  
"Get in the car Letty." He shoved me playfully toward the car. I shoved him back with a laugh. We'd grown closer over the 6 years we'd known each other and over the last year of it my feelings for him had changed. Well, they'd shifted at 13 but they were really different now. I wanted him the way a woman wants a man. I really didn't think Dom wanted me that way and I knew Dom would never do anything about it because he thought he was too old for me anyway.  
  
I'd never had a boyfriend either. Not that guys didn't ask but I was holding out for Dom. Well, I'd gone out a few times because Dom had lots of girls. They were always hanging off him. And like a typical 20 year old he sucked up the attention. But sometimes, just sometimes I caught him looking at me funny. I hoped it meant what I thought it did. So I dated other guys every once in a while but it never went anywhere because my heart wasn't in it. But as Mia climbed in the back of the car, telling me it was my birthday so I could have the front, that actually had a seat, all I had on my mind was what Van had planed for my birthday.  
  
"We gotta go to the garage first. Dad wants me to look at something quick then we'll all go home together." Dom told us right before he cranked the tunes up and headed for what was at the time known as Toretto's garage. It didn't become DT's till after. He drove fast, and if he wasn't Dom it would have been reckless too. But because he was Dom I knew we were safe with him. I enjoyed the ride. I think he drove faster then he would have if he was alone because he knew how much I loved fast rides.  
  
When we pulled up to the shop Dom made me and Mia come in too. We didn't want to. We wanted to sit in Dom's cool car and listen to his stereo but Dom insisted. We walked into the shop and all the lights were off.  
  
"What the." Dom trailed off. "Dad! We're here. Where are you?" Dom called, but it sounded like he had laughter in his voice.  
  
The lights flew on and there, in the middle of the shop was my purple car. Not the toy but a real car that looked just like it.  
  
"Happy birthday Letty." Dom told me quietly. Then louder he said "Well, go see her." And gave me a shove toward the car.  
  
"The car is for me?" I asked as I stumbled toward it. I couldn't believe it.  
  
"Of course. Who else but you would want a purple car?" Dom smirked good- naturedly "I'm sick of driving you and Mia to school. I had to do something about it." Dom grinned. "Go." He shoved me softly toward the beautiful car again. I looked closer. I could see myself in the gleaming, flawless paint. I walked slowly around the car. When I got to the name on the back of the car I sucked in a breath. I knew what this was. This WAS my purple car. I wanted to take this gift more then anything. But it was too much. This was a rare car. The Toretto's weren't rich. I couldn't take something like this from them. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done but I turned to Dominic and his father.  
  
"Dom this is a Silvia. I can't take this. It's too much."  
  
"Sure you can. I only got it for you. I only painted it that horrid color for you. I mean I had to strip it right down. I knew you'd always want it to be purple so I had to gut it and properly change the color. It's purple now and it's your car."  
  
"It was built with you in mind Letitia." Van added. "We want you to have your purple car." He grinned. "Get in."  
  
"It's too much." I protested as I slid into the car with Dom's help. "I can't keep this."  
  
"You can keep it and you will. Besides, I got it cheap. It was wrecked. I've been working on it for the last year now." Dom told me with a cocky grin. He leaned into the window and got right in my face for the rest. "Besides it's not even close to done yet. It's pretty well bone stock. I'll expect you to put in your own wrench time to build your race car. I want you to have it Letty. I want you racing this car by my side. You got it in you girl. I can see it in your eyes. You'n me are gonna run the streets." He hadn't wanted his dad or sister to hear him say those things. It wouldn't do for even Mia and his dad to hear him talk like that. He stood up away from the car and just looked at me with those black eyes that almost no one but me can read.  
  
I stood up out of the car and grabbed Dom around his neck. We were pretty touchy with each other. We had been for some time. "Thanks. I'll take real good care of it." I really didn't know what else to say.  
  
"You're welcome. And I know you will. Besides you didn't think I was going to let you drive my car to learn stick did you?" I sniffled. Dom looked down at me, deep into my tear filled eyes, then right in front of his sister and his dad he kissed me. On the lips. And not the kind of kiss one gave a sister. The kind of kiss that one gives a girl that one liked. It was the best birthday ever. Dom's dad even approved of us. I thought his dad would be mad because I was too young for Dom. I thought Van would try to keep him away from me because of the age difference. But now that I think about it I'd say that Van pushed Dom toward me. He never approved of any other girl Dom ever brought home.  
  
They left us alone in the garage beside the car. I think it was like they knew we needed to be alone for a few minutes. And Dom kissed me again. Then set me inside the driver's seat and got in the passenger and started to show me around the interior. He showed me all sorts of stuff about my new car. My new car. I couldn't say it to myself enough.  
  
He took me out after our special family dinner and started to show me how to drive a standard. I'd never gotten the chance to learn. That wasn't all he taught me on the night of my 16th birthday. It was also the first night we christened my car. The first time I ever had sex. Turns out Dom had wanted me since I was 13 and he was 17, just like I'd wanted him. But he had known I'd been too young then. But I wasn't now. 4 years wasn't such a big deal. But Dom was my first. And Dom's the only one I've ever had sex with to this day. And that is how I got my car and why it's so important to me. It's the best thing anyone ever gave me and there are little parts of me and Dom all through it. So therefore the car is the best of Dom and me all rolled up into one package. Plus it reminds me of Van.  
  
When I came out of my reflection I had tear tracks on my face. Yep, that was why Raidon was so special to me. And I'd put him on the line over a stupid car race. But I wasn't losing. And if I did I could never go home. Dom gave me that car. He told me he loved me for the first time in that car. He taught me to race in that car. He made me the queen to his king of the streets in that car. He helped me build that car. He and I spent so much time together in that car. I couldn't lose this race. I knew that I was going home to Dom someday. If I went home without my Silvia he'd never forgive me. His dad had told me what Dom really went through to get that car and it wasn't as easy as Dom had made me think.  
  
He'd saved for a whole year to buy it. He'd gone without a lot of things he'd really wanted so that I could have my car. For the year he'd saved he'd worked for his dad and for another guy at the race track. Then he'd put almost all his race winnings for that year toward it too. It hadn't been wrecked. It had been in a minor accident. Then he worked on fixing it up for a year like he'd said. Every time I couldn't find him. Every time I wondered why I didn't see him as much as I'd used to it was because he was building my car. Van had helped him fix it up and had given him a small amount of the money he'd needed to buy it but other then that it had all been Dom. It had been all Dom's idea to buy it in the first place. He'd had to go on the internet to find out just what kind of car my Hot Wheels had been too.  
  
So that whole year he'd been MIA so much he'd been building my car. That and trying to keep his hands off me. He told me that later. But it was ok because I'd been trying to keep my hands off him too. And even Mia approved of the match. And he did just what he'd said. He'd made me his queen. I'm glad that Van got to see me and Dom happy together before he died. Where ever he is right now he's pissed at both of us for letting things get this bad.  
  
Having Dom for my own is what gave me 'the attitude'. If I got Dom then I was special. It went to my head. And it made other girls hate me. And it made other guys want me. But through the whole first year we dated we were the ultimate couple. We never fought. Dom was affectionate and passionate. He wanted everyone to know I was his girl. He never let anyone forget it.  
  
Then Dom's dad was killed.  
  
That was the worst day of my life. We were all at the track. We all went with Van every time. We cheered for him from the front row of benches every race. He was going right to the top of the pro circuit and we couldn't have been more pleased.  
  
I remember Van was out front and Kenny Linder was right behind him. Linder was driving recklessly and I remember Dom making a comment about how he was going to cause an accident if he didn't smarten up. Linder came too close for comfort to Van's bumper and I grabbed Dom's hand in fear as I watched. He squeazed back. He was nervous too.  
  
But Van kept it on the track. That time. The next time he wasn't so lucky. Linder clipped his bumper solid and Van's car spun out into the wall at 120. The car burst into flames. I just stood there in shock. Mia broke down into great racking sobs and Dom and Vince tried to jump the fence to get to the car.  
  
But none of us could do anything and we had to watch Van burn to death. For the week after that day Dom was inconsolable. We went to the funeral two days after it happened and it's the only time I've ever seen Dom cry. Not tears running down his face but great, racking sobs that shook his whole body. He wasn't as big then. That came after. But all I could do was hold him and try to be strong. He'd made me strong, with his love. Tough came from my dad and how he use to treat me but strong came from Dom.  
  
I had to stop with the reminiscing and get to the racing. It was almost time. I really hope I'm as good as I think because if I lose my Silvia then my life won't be worth living. It will be like loosing Van, Dom and the rest of the team all over again.  
  
I got dressed in some of my new cloths and then headed out to the car in question. Still purple, still had the same graphics that Dom put on it for me. I slid inside and slammed the door. Still had a hint of his aftershave if I closed my eyes while I took a big sniff. It was time for me to win one on my own.  
  
I started the car up and headed to the address the guy had given me. There was already quite a crowd gathered. I guess the guy hadn't given me the wrong address or anything. I got a spot and stood up out of my car, looking around.  
  
I looked to my left and, low and behold, there was the buster, to borrow a page from Vince.  
  
"Hey baby." Same stupid grin. Still talking to my boobs.  
  
"Hey. When are we on?" I got right to the point.  
  
"Whenever you're ready girl. I hope you brought you're partying clothes." He leered at me. Oh man. What a loser. "I'ma own that sweet little body when we're done."  
  
"Whatever. Let's race."  
  
"Feisty. I like that."  
  
"Whateva." I got in my car again and rolled down the window. "We on?" I was getting impatient.  
  
"Yeah baby. We on. I hope the man who build that ride for you isn't in the picture because you'n I are gonna get so freaky that he'd have to kill me if you were his girl."  
  
"I built this car. Now go get in yours and drive to the line so I can follow you there." I sighed. But he went and got in his car and as he drove I followed him. When we stopped at the line he called a black man with cornrows over to his car. I guess he was telling that guy what was up.  
  
The black guy must be the equivalent of Dom down in this place. It seemed that all races had to go through him. The guy looked over at my car and nodded. Then he walked my way. I sighed again. He was going to want to talk to me. I didn't want to roll my window down. I wanted to stay as low key as I could and my 5% tint all around was helping me out there. But I couldn't ignore the guy when he was right beside my window. I rolled it down.  
  
"Hey. I'm Tej." The guy told me.  
  
"Letty." I answered him shortly.  
  
"You know what you're doing? This guy, much as he's an idiot, can really race."  
  
"Yeah, well, so can I so are we doin this or not? I have a car to win." I was getting sick of getting the run around.  
  
"Ok girl. Good luck." He walked away and I rolled my window up. It was on. A race skank walked out in front of us and held up a scarf. I revved up my car and the crowd cheered. I didn't have any use for a Toyota. Why was I doing this again? Oh yeah, because I have Dom's pride. It's gotten me into trouble before.  
  
The skank dropped her scarf and we took off. Tej wasn't kidding. The guy was good. But he wasn't that good. I got the lead after the first three seconds and I kept it. I crossed the finish line half a car ahead of him, turned around and then went back to the party.  
  
I pulled up into the crowd and got out of my car. I was surrounded in a heartbeat by cheering well wishers who wanted to be in my presence. I'd won a car. Fair and square. I took the congratulations with cool politeness.  
  
"Hey girl. That was some race. You wanna give me a chance to earn back my car?" The punk was still full of his own importance.  
  
"Nope. But I'll give you a chance to buy it back. For 20 G's." I smiled at him, a very cocky smile.  
  
"Done. I love my car. I love to caress her." He started to go on and on. Trying to convince me that he would be a good lover for me based on how he liked his car, based on his smart mouth.  
  
"Shut up and give me my money punk." I told him with a smile that had no amusement in it. He handed it over, surprise surprise.  
  
"There you go." He handed me a huge wad of cash. Then he sighed in defeat and walked away. Tej walked up to me.  
  
"Hey girl. That was some race. You sticken around for awhile? I got a few more races for you if you are."  
  
"Yeah man, I'll be in town for awhile. If you can hook me up then just let me know." I was pretty happy to get in good with the guy who organized races on my first night out.  
  
"You wanna run again tonight?" I leaned in my window and checked my NOS gage. I had lots of spray left.  
  
"Sure." I told him with my first Letty cocky grin since I'd left LA.  
  
"Good." Tej started to walk away from me to set up the next race.  
  
"Tej what's this I hear about you finding a racer that can beat me?" A slightly familiar voice asked from behind me. I turned slowly around.  
  
"Chumpy?" I asked in shock. Brian was in Miami. This couldn't be happening.  
  
"Letty?" Brian was just as shocked as I was. But he smiled that killer smile at being called my pet name for him.  
  
"You two know each other?" Tej asked and before either of us could answer a very slim woman stepped in between us.  
  
"What's with calling our Bullit Chumpy?" She asked me with attitude.  
  
"Bullit?" I asked and I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. "Chumpy, you convinced these people you can race?" Brian's smile got bigger.  
  
"Not against you girl. Never against you. Reina, how you been livin?" Brian seemed pleased to see me, slipped into his nickname for me. Was Spanish for queen. His reference to the fact that I was Dom's queen. Then his face seemed to fall and he looked around nervously. "Are you here alone?"  
  
"Yep." I answered.  
  
"Why?" Brian seemed to have a lot more questions.  
  
"Why did you run away from us?" I shot back. I had a lot too. Mainly why did you break my best friend's heart? Brian had a lot to answer for.  
  
"Maybe we should go talk alone huh Let?"  
  
"Might be for the best Brian." I suddenly was really glad Brian was in Miami. I wasn't alone anymore. Assuming he had a real good reason for not telling Mia what was happening and what he was going to be doing. If not I'd have to beat the shit out of him. The idea had no appeal but it would be the principle of the thing.  
  
"Where you staying?" He asked. I named my motel. "Hell no. Girl, you can come stay with us. Can't she Tej?" Brian turned to Tej.  
  
"Sure, we got room." Tej answered. I could tell that he wanted to know more about me.  
  
"I'll follow you to your room. You can get your stuff and then follow me to Tej's. You have a job yet?"  
  
"Hell no Chumpy. I just got here."  
  
"It's your lucky day then. Tej needs a mechanic."  
  
"No shit?" I wasn't ever this lucky. This was pretty lucky.  
  
"Well, I do need one but I need a seriously good one." Tej broke in.  
  
"I'm the best." I answered. I was one of the best. I knew it.  
  
"Well." Tej didn't look sure.  
  
"We can talk about that more tomorrow Bro. For now I wanna get her settled in." Brian saved me from telling Tej of my skills and how I got them at 1am.  
  
"Sounds good Brian." Tej gave up.  
  
"Stop calling our Bullit Chumpy." The girl tried one more time to convince me that Brian deserved to be called Bullit. I wasn't in the best mood to begin with and this girl was getting on last nerve.  
  
"I'll call him Bullit when he beats me in a race for the first time. Besides that all the skills he's got he got from." I couldn't call him Dom. These people wouldn't know who he was. I couldn't call him my boyfriend because he wasn't. So what was Dominic Toretto to me now? I didn't even know. "He got from the same old friend who taught me. And I was taught first. I have more race time. He's gonna be my Chumpy. He can be your bullit if you want him to be." I smirked. If the girl wanted to go I'd oblige her.  
  
"It's ok Suki." Brian told her with a smile. "She's an old friend and she can kick my ass six ways to Sunday, either on the track or in a fight."  
  
"Are we friends Brian?"  
  
"I think we need to go talk about that." Brian turned serious for the first time.  
  
"Lets go." I told him and got into my car. He followed me to the motel and helped me pack up my shit. I checked out then followed him to Tej's house. 


	5. Bullit Tells His Story

Chapter 5 - Bullit Tells his story  
  
It's good that all my shit still fits in one bag. I don't want to end up with too much stuff. This isn't where I'm gonna live. I gotta remember that. I need to keep traveling light. I don't want to get too much stuff and get too comfortable here. I've gotta think of this like the vacation I told Vince I was on. This isn't home. This is a break. This is a temporary thing. Miami's nice but L.A.'s home. I'm going back. I'm going back when I know who I am. I was just musing about stuff as I followed Brian home.  
  
Strange thing, that. It was Brian who followed Mia home and into our lives in the first place and now I'm following him places. That's irony. I don't know what he can tell me that will be a good enough reason for what he did to Mia either, cause not only am I the tough girl, I'm the loyal girl too. And Mia's been my girl since I was 10. Now what can this punk tell me that will be a good enough reason for breaking my girl's heart? I hope he comes up with some thing cause I really, really want to be able to stay with him. Brian was around for awhile and he became comfortable. I was comfortable around him. I could talk to him and let him see the Letty the team saw, not the Letty front the rest of the world saw. Plus he was a really good listener.  
  
Another thing about Brian. You can tell a lot about a person based on the way they care for their car and how they treat it. Brian loved every minute of building the supra. It wasn't just about the finished car to him; the process of getting it there was just as important to him. It means that to Brian a strong foundation is just as important as the end product and that building a strong product on that strong foundation is more important then the speed you arrive at the finished product at. He also really cared about the car itself. He had pride it in. It wasn't just a car to him, it was his car and it was special. You could see it in his eyes and tell it in how he held the tools and parts. He joked around with Dom while they built it but Brian also went out of his way to learn everything he could too. So he has a good sense of humour, but he knows what's serious.  
  
Brian hadn't known that much about building a race car when he started to work with Dom but he really wanted to know. I could tell just based on how much time he was around the shop and the fact that he went out of his way to do every job he was given by Dom to the best of his ability. Hell, I'm a great mechanic and even I want to cut corners sometimes. Brian never wanted to cut corners. The longer it took the better as far as he was concerned if it meant the job would be done right. Brian was just the kind of guy. I suppose it helped him in his line of work. He'd have had to be methodical and able to plan to be a good detective but it stood him in good stead as a mechanic too.  
  
He never lost his temper. Not that I saw. He hardly swore. The worst I ever heard him say was shit. He took all that shit from Vince with mostly good humour and tried to look the other way. He even tried to make up with Vince at one point but of course Vince wasn't having it. Not after Brian had taken the one thing Vince wanted that he could never have. Mia's love. So my mind was back to Mia. What could Brian tell me that would make what he did ok? I was having a real hard time figuring it out.  
  
Brian might have been in our lives to do something pretty shitty but he didn't do it in the end. But then he did what he did to Mia. If he didn't want to be with her then he should have at least told her that. That was what hurt her the most. The fact that he'd told her that everything he'd ever said he'd felt about her was real. If it was then why'd he leave her? If he was really in love with her then why didn't he come back? He must have known that Mia and Dom would forgive him in the end if he was really in love with Mia.  
  
He should have at least inquired about Jesse, to see if the kid made it. Should have asked about Vince and how he was doing. Should have told Mia a good reason why he didn't want to be with her anymore.  
  
Hell, he knew why he was in our lives. He shouldn't have gotten so involved with Mia. But he also made sure we all got off on some technicality. I think the way we got off might have had something to do with why Brian just disappeared. That's why I'm gonna give him this chance to explain himself.  
  
We pulled up to a garage on the water. I mean, right on the water. What a place for a garage. It's fantastic. I can't wait to see it in the bright Miami sunshine. The place was looking pretty deserted when we pulled up but it was 2am after all. I followed Brian into what appeared to be a 10 car garage, parked my car and started to get him ready for the night.  
  
There are people who are asking 'what does she have to do to get the car ready for the night?' Well, lots when it's just been run as hard as my car has. I have to shut down and bleed off the NOS system. I have to make sure the turbo timer is set to let the engine run and cool down for the right length of time based on how hot the engine is. If I don't it will cause something called coking in the turbo and that'll be the end of it. I reset the computer systems. I always turn the stereo down and turn off my lights last. Then I get out and walk around the car to make sure the paint is still clean and there's nothing out of the ordinary. If that all checks out then the car is ready to be parked for the night. I know it seems like a crazy amount of stuff to do just to park the car but I already explained why my car is so important.  
  
Brian watched with a bemused look on his face the whole time I was going through this process. After the process reached the 5 minute mark he got impatient and opened my door.  
  
"Reina, this is a car not your child. It doesn't need this much attention from you. It doesn't know you're here. You can just leave it, you don't have to say good night. It'll be fine in here and if anything happens to it then Jimmy'll fix it." He laughed at me while he said it. I knew why he was impatient to be off but I wasn't putting my car last over it. Plus at the rate things were going it would be the only child Dom was likely to give me.  
  
"I don't want anything to happen to him." I answered back and finished with my checks from inside the car and killed the lights. I didn't want to share my other thoughts about Dom and children with Brian. Yet.  
  
"You and calling this car a him. Car's are she's. Or it's for that matter. It's not a he." Brian was still laughing at me.  
  
"Yeah, to you they all might be she's or it's but to me they have personalities just like people and based on their personalities some are male and some are female. Raidon is a male." We'd had this discussion before but Brian had found it so amusing then I figured he was making me tell it again now for his further amusement. "Besides that fact I couldn't have the kind of relationship I have with my car with a girl. I don't go that way."  
  
"Letty do I even wanna know?" Brian asked me with a grimace.  
  
"Well, it's not dirty. Just passionate." I laughed back at Brian. He grinned at that. "So when'd you get the Evo?" I asked him. I was just curious. I mean I know he gave Dom the supra and we still have it in LA so I was wondering what made him decide to go with something as gutless as an Evo VII after he'd driven something as hard core as a 2JZ Supra.  
  
"Well, that's gonna play a big role in our conversation. I think it's gonna be a long ass night Let. You wanna get started on it now or do you wanna go to bed and talk about it in the morning?"  
  
I took a minute to really think about that. Could I be ok staying with Brian without knowing if he had the good reason I was hoping he had for what he'd done to Mia? I hadn't gotten much sleep over the last few days and one more short night wasn't going to kill me.  
  
"I'd rather talk tonight Brian. Unless you have to get up early in the morning or something. Then we can talk tomorrow if you want."  
  
"I'm lookin pretty open for the next few days so I think I'd rather get it out of the way too. You can leave your car here and we'll go to my place."  
  
"You don't live here?" I didn't want to stay if Brian didn't live here. I wasn't staying with strangers. I mean, I guess Brian was a stranger. Brian O'Connor was for sure. It remained to be seen how much of Brian O'Connor was Brian Spilner. I'd been under the impression that Brian and his friends lived in one house just like we did back in LA.  
  
"Well, there's a lot of us and the house was getting crowded so Tej let me live on an old houseboat he had out back empty. It's great really. I have the team close but I have my own space too. My friend Rome lives here and if Rome and I had to share a house we'd kill each other. He lives in the house with Tej, Suki and Jimmy and I live in the houseboat alone." Brian held a hand out to me. It was like he understood just how overwhelmed, sad, upset, confused, angry, and most of all unsure I was about the whole situation and my whole life in general. I thought for a second and took his hand. It felt really good to have someone holding my hand, to have someone looking out for me. For the longest time it had been me holding the hands of those around me and it felt good to be the one who was comforted by someone for a change. He picked up my bag with his other hand and carried the lot down to his boat. As we walked he let go of my hand and rapped his arm around my shoulders. I was so tired all of a sudden that I leaned my head on his shoulder. God Brian, have a really good reason, was all that was running through my head.  
  
The boat was pretty cool. It was dark, but as I walked on it looked neat. It had a little deck on the back with some lawn chairs then a kitchen, which Brian would later tell me is a galley on a boat. It had a bathroom with running water and a shower, a dining area and two bedrooms. One bedroom, the big one had a TV and entertainment system and the ever present PS2. It smelled good. I realize it smelled like clean male and it was just a scent I was use to having in my life and had been recently deprived of but it still smelled really good. It didn't smell like Dom though and that made me sad. Brian gave me a look like he knew what was on my mind.  
  
Brian set my stuff in the smaller room. "We'll let you decide where you want to stay permanently tomorrow. When you go to bed tonight you can just stay down here." I nodded. The less I had to move the better. I had a funny feeling this conversation was going to take a lot of out me. "I believe I asked you what you were doing in Miami all alone first." Brian said to me.  
  
"You may have but you better believe you're gonna tell me why you abandoned Mia before we go anywhere else." Brian sighed and looked at his hands, which he had folded in his lap. His whole posture just screamed out total dejection. I was getting more optimistic that he had a really good reason.  
  
"I knew it was going to come to that." Brian tried to give me that infamous bad boy grin but it didn't happen. He was really upset. I think he might have been on the verge of a crying fit. I really felt for him. After all, I knew where he was coming from first hand. But he was telling me the story. I wasn't going to go easy on him. It hadn't been easy on Mia when he'd disappeared off the face of the earth. "Well it all started when I gave Dom the keys to the supra." Brian began.  
  
"I'd been telling my bosses all along that I didn't think it was Dom. That it didn't really seem like it was his style. They never believed me. They thought it was Dom all along. I never did. They told me that I was getting too involved with Mia and it was blurring my objectivity. I knew they were right based on how much it angered me when they accused me of it. If I didn't have real feelings for her when they'd said that to me I would have just told them they were crazy and went on with life." I just stared at him with total attention while he told the story. I could tell it was very hard for him to relive it all.  
  
"I tried every avenue I could before I'd believe it was Dom. I thought Tran was the obvious choice and I went that route first. Then Hector came in and bought all the stuff he needed to build spoon engines for Honda Civics so I went after him. My boss, Tanner, tried to convince me it was Dom, that Tran and Hector were just 'fumes'. By that time I'd had to start looking at the fact that it might be Dom. It wasn't Tran and it wasn't Hector. I'd picked Dom's team, your team, to get involved with not because I thought it was you guys doing it but because I knew that Dom knew who was."  
  
"It was the perfect plan because it wasn't his style. It was Vince's style but it wasn't Dom's." I told him. I guess I wanted him to understand in some way why'd we'd done what we'd done. After all, Brian got us off. No matter what else he'd done he made sure Dom didn't go back to prison, that Vince didn't either.  
  
"I really didn't think so. And I know this isn't going to go over well with you but I thought Vince would do it but I didn't think he was really clever enough to pull it off." I smiled, and it made Brian look at me funny.  
  
"He's plenty smart. He just doesn't like to let on. Besides that the way he wants to fight all the time tends to make people think he's just a thug. But he's not. And I doubt he could have masterminded it himself just because he's not a leader. That's why we have Dom." I clarified for Brian. He continued with his story.  
  
"But anyway, I started to get to know Dom, I fell for Mia, and you guys all became my friends. I'd like to think I was a part of the team. I know it felt like I was to me. And as I got to know everyone not only did you all not seem like the kind of people who'd do that sort of thing, I really didn't want to believe you could. So I looked for any way I could find to prove it was someone else, to prove my supervisors wrong. Then I found out in no uncertain terms that it was you guys that night at race wars. I was so disappointed and so worried. I had to blow my cover and tell Mia who I was so she'd give me Dom's cell number. My plan was to catch you guys before you pulled the job. If the heist didn't happen then the problem went away because I didn't have any concrete proof at the time of the last heist."  
  
"So you wanted to catch us to make us stop before we caught the truck?" That was hard to believe. That meant Brian had taken our side as of race wars. That meant Brian did it for the whole team, not just because of Mia and Dom. Brian rose a notch in my opinion. I hoped his reason for ditching Mia didn't have him crash back down into the dirt.  
  
"Yeah. That would have made life easier for everyone. But since I didn't manage I had to do something. I was still trying to come up with a plan when I saw Dom's car dead on the side of the road then came up to Vince stuck on the side of the truck. I knew that Mia would never get over it if anything happened to Vince. No matter how annoying she finds him by times I knew she loved him like she loved Dom. I had to do what I could to keep him alive."  
  
"He appreciates you taking that jump onto the truck and saving him Brian. I mean, he don't like you. But he's thankful for his life, especially since he's living it outside of prison." Brian gave me a small smile, like knowing Vince didn't hate him as much as he had made it somewhat worth while.  
  
"Then once he was off the truck I knew he had to go to the hospital and fast. But not only do they ask questions as hospitals they also wonder how people end up in the middle of no where with shotgun wounds. But it was let him die or take him to the hospital and blow my cover to Dom. The worst part about that was poor Mia. I could tell that Dom thought she knew about me before that day. Then when Mia took off on me and went with Dom I figured it was all over anyway. I mean, she looked back at me like she might be able to forgive me but then back at the house she wouldn't even look at me or talk to me. She said everything to Dom."  
  
"She was mad. I mean, can you blame her?"  
  
"No, I can't."  
  
"Then why didn't you come back for her, after she calmed down, after Dom calmed down?"  
  
"I'll get there." He told me. I sighed. I wanted to know everything and I didn't want to wait. Patience was never one of my strong points. "After I hunted down Tran for what he did to Jesse and let Dom go I knew it was all over. There was nothing left I could do at that point. I thought it was hopeless. I figured you were all going to jail. It was the last thing I wanted but I didn't see any way around it. Then I realized I was the only one who'd seen you guys pull the job. I was the only one who could prove it was you guys. If I'd stayed around then they could have forced me to testify and I wouldn't have lied under oath. Well, I might have but at the time I decided what to do I figured I wouldn't and you guys would end up in jail. Not to mention what they were likely to do to me for giving Dom my car keys."  
  
"He was so angry at you Brian, but he really liked you too. He said that you giving him your keys took the kind of courage that you don't see very often. He said that he knew that we deserved to go to jail for what we did but at the same time you played us a little more then the law would look favourably on too. He said that he wished you'd have come back because you were the kind of man he wanted on his team, and the kind of man he wanted to see Mia with." Brian did cry then.  
  
You know, it didn't make me think less of him. It made me think more of him. It was obvious he didn't want to cry, especially not in front of me, the girl who never does. But he didn't try to hide it. He didn't make excuses like something in his eye or anything. He just let the tears run down his cheeks with quiet dignity. My respect for Brian was steadily increasing. Brian did have a lot of dignity. Maybe he could help me get mine back.  
  
That sounds really strange I'm sure. But you don't know just how quick you lose most of your dignity when so much of your private business is public knowledge. Think about it. Really think. Every person around races knew just how often Dom cheated on me. Knew who he'd done it with, when, how many times, and how it was. The girls he cheated on me with didn't keep in on the hush, they told everyone who'd listen that they'd slept with Dominic Toretto.  
  
I didn't help myself out in the dignity department either, fighting with him and screaming at him in public. Making rude comments to any girl who looked at him. Wearing barely there clothes by times to try and keep his attention on me not those other girls. So often in my past with Dom my pride has been crushed and my dignity has been left in tatters around me.  
  
But Brian sat in front of me, spirit bruised maybe, but dignity intact as he cried about what he'd lost. He'd lost just as much as I had when I left Dom. And if I let myself be honest, maybe more. He'd lost Mia, and it was now obvious he'd really loved her, he lost the team, he lost Dom and he lost his job. I looked at him again and his clear blue, tear filled gaze met mine. "Do you want to tell me the rest of the story?"  
  
"Yeah." He answered and took another minute to compose himself then continued. "I realized if they couldn't find me then they couldn't make me testify. I took Dom's RX-7 and ran. I left my badge at my house and packed up what I figured I needed and a few things I couldn't leave behind and took off. I hitched to racewars, took the RX-7 and took off. I was almost sure that you guys would get off without my testimony and I figured I'd find a way to get the RX back to Dom somehow when I got where I was going."  
  
"He reported it stolen and then it turned up in some motel." I giggled. The saga of the RX-7 was finally solved. Brian gave me a slightly toned down version of his smile.  
  
"I got so far in my travels before I came out of my motel night to find the RX surrounded by cops. So that's how they knew to be looking for it. Dom reported it stolen." Brian nodded like a big mystery had finally been solved in his head. "I took the RX because I'd given Dom my car." It was like he figured I was angry at him for taking the car.  
  
"Brian. I don't care that you 'borrowed' the RX-7 for awhile. Hell, you kept us out of jail man. As far as I'm concerned you coulda kept the car." I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way.  
  
"When I found the car surrounded by cops I hitched a ride with someone else to a used car lot. I had a lot of money on me that I got from.." He trailed off for some reason.  
  
"How'd you get the money Bri?" I prompted softly.  
  
"I raced Dom's RX-7 half way across the country. I raced in every city I stopped off in and I always won."  
  
"You raced Dom's Rex?" At his nod I roared in laughter. "Chumpy, he'd shit himself if he knew that. No one races that car but Dom. I can't believe it. One of the reasons why he got me my car was so that he wouldn't have to let me drive his to learn to drive a manual transmission." He could tell from my uncontrollable laughter that I wasn't mad about it. If Dom found out however, Brian would have a reason to be scared.  
  
"So I took the money I'd won in the RX-7 and I bought another car at the car dealership that my ride left me at. I spent some time there fixing it up and painting it. Then I headed off again. I didn't know where I was going, just that I had to go. I hit the point of New York or Miami and picked Miami. I arrived, I raced, I won, Tej took me in. I became sort of like the Dom of Miami. Well, the best racer at least. Tej runs the scene as you likely figured out tonight."  
  
"I picked up on that. I still can't believe you can race Chumpy."  
  
"Hey, I learned from the best." Brian was happy again. Or he was doing a good job of pretending for my sake. I nodded. Yes he had. So had I. Dom was the best. It seemed even 'Bullit' admitted it. I shook my head. Bullit. I couldn't believe MY Chumpy earned the nickname Bullit.  
  
"So here I was in Miami. I wasn't happy but I was living. Racing was fun. Tej had no problem hooking me up for races and he'd even tell me when the people had deep pockets so I could up the stakes. I was doing really good for myself. It hurt that I couldn't call Mia or visit any of you. Couldn't call to find out if Jesse was ok or Vince for that matter but I was existing here. I was almost happy if I didn't let myself think of the past."  
  
"Why couldn't you call us?" I still didn't get that part.  
  
"Because the feds would have been hoping for that. They might have even had a tap on your line waiting for me to call. They knew how deep I was in with you guys. They might have figured on me calling or visiting you all at some point. So I couldn't or everything would be for nothing. I knew if they caught me then I'd have to go back to LA and not only face my music, I'd have to testify against you guys."  
  
"Makes sense." I nodded my head.  
  
"I took on another name. Most people called me Bullit anyway. Things were going ok. Then at one street race a woman that I didn't recognize that didn't belong showed up. She kept watching me. It was strange. I won't lie to you Reina, I thought she was pretty. It'd been 6 months since I'd left LA and I had no hope in sight of ever going back. I figured that my life with the team was lost to me and that Mia had likely already moved on anyway. I tried to flirt with the woman but she wasn't having it. Then she told me to get out of races and then seconds later the cops showed up." My face must have gotten nasty when he mentioned another girl but he begged me with his eyes to let him continue so I did. I almost choked on the words but I kept them inside. Mia hadn't moved on. She still hadn't. I don't think she can. She needs closure. But there's lots of time to talk about that later. Brian continued.  
  
"I'd outrun the cops lots of times before. I knew how important it was for me to avoid cops any way I could. But these cops weren't your everyday Miami PD. They had Electromagnetic disruptor guns and they got my car with one and set it off. It fried everything and I crashed out. They got me. I tried to pretend I wasn't who they thought I was for as long as I could. Then they sent in the FBI agent who'd been in charge of your case. He knew me, there was no way I was convincing him he didn't. They told me if I did a job for them then they'd make my record go away and therefore that would clear you guys totally too. I took the job. I had to pick another driver so I found my old pal Rome from Barstow which is where I grew up and we did the job."  
  
"I knew you weren't from Arizona. You sound too much like a valley boy." I grinned and Brian blushed. "So then why didn't you look us up? You were cleared, we were cleared."  
  
"I'm not proud of it Let but I was scared. Scared out of my mind. Scared Dom hated me. Scared Mia hated me. Scared Mia had a new man. It had been 8 months since I'd seen any of you. I didn't know if you'd want to see me so I stayed here. Tried to get on with my life. I tried to date the girl cop from races, Monica, but it lasted about 2 dates. She wasn't Mia. But life was good. I had races and I didn't have to be on cop watch all the time."  
  
"I don't understand how it is you win races in that Evo. It's just not that hardcore." I wanted to let poor Brian talk about something a bit lighter for awhile. Plus I had to know. It was killing me inside. It had to be one hell of an Evo. I don't even know if Jesse could tune an Evo up to be that fast.  
  
"I don't race the Evo. You wanna see what I really race?" Brian had a sly grin on his face.  
  
"Hell yeah." I stood up. It was a car, I could move over a car. He led me out of the boat and we started back toward the garage.  
  
"So did Jesse." Brian trailed off. It was like he was hoping he wasn't bringing up a really bad memory for me.  
  
"Jesse's fine. It took a while for him to get better. He was in a coma for a month and then it took him another month to get out of the hospital. He's designing me a s15 Silvia. He wants me to upgrade. I'm letting him design it but I'll never upgrade my car."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"It's a very long story. I'll tell you some other time." Brian nodded and moved on to other topics.  
  
"How's Vince."  
  
"Good. He's got some nasty scars but he's ok with it cause 'chicks dig it'." We shared a laugh. We entered the garage and walked up to a car covered by a custom Nissan car cover. "You went Nissan. Good boy." I told him and waited for him to move the cover. He grabbed the corner and flicked the cover off. Under it was the most beautiful Skyline I'd ever seen.  
  
"What do you think?" He asked me.  
  
"Wow. It's beautiful. Leon would shit." I walked around the car. I got to the drivers door and raised an eyebrow. "Honey?"  
  
"That's her name." Brian said with a gesture at his car. I laughed. Brian looked very embarrassed.  
  
"You owe me so you have to let me drive it sometime."  
  
"Anytime Reina. I'd trust you with my car anytime." He was sincere, I could tell. "But now we go to bed. You can tell me why you're here when we wake up in the morning. Or afternoon at this rate." It was 4am.  
  
"Sounds like a plan." I told him as I stretched. Anything that made reliving leaving Dom wait awhile sounded good. We went back to his boat and he let me use the washroom first. Then I went to bed. It wasn't long till I fell asleep with the gentle rocking of the boat and the first comfortable bed I'd had to sleep in in days.  
  
Unfortunately it also wasn't long after that that another of my newest friends woke me up. My recurring nightmare. What fun. I've never been prone to nightmares. I'm one of those annoying people who can watch horror movies for hours at a time and not get a nightmare. But it seemed that up rooting my life had changed that on me. There'd only been one night since I left LA that I slept the night through. I'd had such high hopes for sleeping the night through once I'd found out I'd get to stay with Brian.  
  
But it didn't happen. Only this time I didn't wake up screaming on my own in a cold sweat with tears pouring down my face. I woke up to someone gently shaking me and telling me I was ok. It was some of the sweetest stuff anyone ever said to me. I must have woken Brian and he was crouched by my bed shaking me and telling me it was ok in the voice I bet he used to calm down accident victims with worry in his crystalline blue eyes.  
  
"It's ok Letty. I'm here. You're not alone." He told me when he saw my eyes open. I couldn't help it. I pretty much threw myself at him sobbing. I hate myself for crying so much. I was supposed to be over the tears.  
  
"Brian." His name was all I could get out.  
  
"Shush Letty. It's ok. Really." He tried to calm me down. I wasn't having it. But it was awfully nice to have someone to be with me. He finally gave up and slid into my bed still holding me. I guess he figured I'd have to calm down sometime if he stayed with me. I guess it was about 10 minutes later when I calmed down and realized I was being held against Brian's side with his arms around me and my head on his shoulder. It was comfortable. I took a shuddering breath and closed my eyes. "You ok now?" Brian asked me. I nodded. I didn't trust myself to talk.  
  
"You want me to stay with you for another while or leave now?" Brian asked me. What did I want? I thought before I answered.  
  
"Stay?" I didn't want him to feel pressured.  
  
"Of course girl. Go to sleep." Brian said as he smoothed my hair and got comfortable himself. I sighed and shifted a bit till I was comfortable. So it seemed I'd found my Miami Vince. I hope I find a Miami girlfriend sometime too. I fell asleep in Brian's arms, safe for the first time in days.  
  
I don't want to give the impression that anything was happening between me and Brian because it wasn't. Brian is Mia's. I'd never get involved with him. Plus, I'm still in love with Dom. Just because I left doesn't mean I've stopped loving Dom. Brian was just offering me comfort and I needed to take it.  
  
I hated myself for thinking his arms felt good around me when I woke up too. They were too white, too small. Too not Dom. But it still felt good. In some ways it felt better then when Dom would hold me. Dom held me like he just didn't want to share, didn't want to let me go. Brian held me because he wanted me to feel safe. Wanted me to know he was there for me. I liked that. And it scared the holy hell out of me.  
  
I don't want Brian, want Brian. I want his friendship, and his company. I can't let myself fall into the trap of confusing wanting his company with wanting him. That would be a huge mistake. Not only because I don't know where I see my life with Dom going but because I know Brian is still hung up on Mia too and if Brian and I were to get involved as more then just friends it would be the biggest mess that I ever created. But that didn't mean that it didn't feel right to wake up with him there. But then I went back to sleep and when I woke up I was all alone and it was 2 in the afternoon. 


	6. Forever Couple?

Chapter 6 - Forever couple?  
  
When I woke up at 2pm I felt like crap. I was trying to make a good impression on these people and instead of getting up at a reasonable hour and hauling ass to that garage to try and get that mechanics job I slept till 2pm. Not a great first impression. But I guess it doesn't get better then winning a car on your first race out in a new place. Still, I wanted the job. I've gone without sleep before. I mean, for much more pleasurable reasons, but still, I could have gotten up at a decent hour and went to talk to Tej about the job. And being able to race didn't make me a good mechanic. I'd have to prove I was a good mechanic by showing my skills. Same as I'd proven I could drive on the blacktop.  
  
The thought of winning the car made me smile. I raced someone for slips because I wanted to. I did it because I wanted to. I didn't have to ask for permission to race my own car. I didn't have to watch my back if I did it without permission. I didn't have to have a fight with anyone about either scenario. That felt good.  
  
The sleeping in thing however felt like shit. I was so sure that that Tej guy was going to think I was a lazy good for nothing bitch who's only skill was racing and was scared of actually doing some work instead of just running a car fast down a straight road. I hauled my ass forcefully out of bed and got dressed quickly in combat pants and a singlet. I tied my hair up off my face and headed out into the main room of the boat. That was where I found Brian. He was sitting at the dining table with a cup of coffee. He looked like he'd borrowed Vince's morning style. He had on a pair of boxer shorts and a tank top that had seen better days.  
  
"You been up long?" I asked him and my voice came out all scratchy and low. Probably because of all the crying I'd done last night. Brian looked startled at first.  
  
"No. I just got up. Coffee's fresh if you want some." Brian told me with a smile.  
  
"Gross. I don't drink that stuff. Only Dom and Vince drink coffee." I told him then frowned at the reminder of how mornings always work back at home. Home in L.A.  
  
Back before everything changed every morning was the same. Well every weekday morning was the same. It would start when the alarm went off. Or rather it would start for Dom when the alarm went off. The alarm had no power to wake me. Ever. I could sleep through any alarm for any length of time. I didn't even stir when the alarm went off. We tried loud alarms. Alarms that played the radio. Alarms that buzzed, rang, screamed. None of it worked. When the alarm went off it would wake up Dom. Never me. I'd just keep right on sleeping. It was hell on the rest of the team when Dom wasn't around for whatever reason. Because if I was alone I kept sleeping. Then the alarm would wake Mia and she'd come wake me up. If no one was around I'd wake up on my own to the alarm going off. It was strange. But that was me, strange. When the alarm went off it would wake Dom right away.  
  
Then Dom would wake me up. He did it the same almost every day. He'd lean in and kiss me while I slept. First softly, then harder. I'd start to kiss him back in my sleep. Then he'd move with his kisses down my throat and then back up. Normally by the time he kissed my mouth again I'd be awake and I'd really kiss him back. Sometimes I'd keep sleeping thinking it was just a really, really nice dream. Either way it almost always went all the way into exactly what you'd think. That was why Dom was always smart enough to give us 20 extra minutes every morning. If he didn't we'd have been late more times then I'd care to count.  
  
Normally then we'd get up and take a shower together and then head down to the kitchen where Mia would have coffee on for the guys and orange juice for the rest of us normal people who didn't drink coffee. God I hate coffee. I always have.  
  
I hate the way Brian drinks his coffee even more. It reminds me of Dom's skin. The amount of cream Brian uses makes the coffee the exact creamy shade of Dom's skin. Dom drinks his coffee with just a bit of milk in it. He always says it's like drinking my skin only I taste better then coffee ever will.  
  
On the weekends at home it could be lunch time before we bothered to get up and then it was fend for yourself for breakfast. Dom and I would get up whenever Dom woke up, because I'll sleep till I feel like waking up, which would be the afternoon most of the time. Doesn't even matter when I go to bed. I can sleep like no one's business. I don't know why but it's always been that way. I almost can't get too much sleep. Dom sometimes would wake me and we'd go get brunch. Sometimes he'd wake me and we'd stay in bed for another hour or two. I loved those days most of all. I snapped out of my reminiscing and turned to the fridge.  
  
I opened Brian's fridge without asking and took out his orange juice and poured a big glass.  
  
"Where's my breakfast Chumpy?" I asked him with a grin. I felt like today was going to be a good day all of a sudden. Couldn't explain it but I just felt that things were looking up. If Brian had just gotten up then maybe it wasn't such a big deal that I'd slept in.  
  
"I don't eat breakfast so there's nothing really you can eat here but toast. You want some toast?" Brian looked guilty at his lack of food in his house.  
  
"Naw, it's all good. It's not like you knew I was coming Bri, don't worry about it. I'm good with the juice."  
  
"We can go grocery shopping for stuff you like later." Brian said and stood up as he drained his mug. I did the same to my glass.  
  
"So what now?" I asked him. I was nervous. Nervous of meeting his friends in the daylight and nervous of telling him about Dom and I. I knew he was going to come back to why I was in Miami sooner or later.  
  
"Now, why don't you tell me why you're here Let? What brought you here?" Brian asked me as he paced around the small kitchen. I sat down at his little table.  
  
"Well." I sighed. Where to start. So much had happened since Brian had disappeared and a lot of it was crucial to understanding what had happened between Dom and I. I just jumped into the story. "Ever since all the shit went down things haven't been the same at home. First Vince and Jesse were in the hospital then just Jesse. Everyone was sort of depressed while the team was all split up. Dom ran away to Mexico and he was gone for a week before we could call him back. So at first it was just me'n Mia and Leon at home. It was a pretty bleak time." Brian nodded and sat down opposite me at the table.  
  
"Dom came home then Vince was released and things started to get better but things weren't going back to normal. They weren't even close. Vince was angry all the time about what happened to him. Mia was so sad about." I didn't know how to finish that sentence so I didn't. I just dropped it and continued on. "Leon was depressed about Jesse and he hardly ever spoke. And Dom mostly just sat in his room. It was like all the stuff that happened broke him. He wouldn't even talk to me. Keeping everyone and everything together fell on me. I wasn't ready for it. I was always a follower. Dom was always in control. I didn't like being trust into the leadership position but if it was up to Dom nothing would have gotten done over that whole time. So I was running the store, the garage, everything. " I sighed. I didn't know how personal to go with the story. I figured that I owed Brian the whole truth and to tell him the whole truth I'd have to go more into the details then poor Brian might want to know.  
  
"He just never spoke to me. I didn't know what happened to change our relationship but something did. I can't be woken up by an alarm clock. It just doesn't happen. Pretty much to get up someone has to wake me. Dom use to do it every morning by kissing me awake. Even during the times we were having troubles. While he wasn't. Well. Faithful to me. But after the heists went bad he'd just shake me awake and then almost run away from me. I didn't know what I did. I still don't know for that matter. But anyway, he went from treating me like his girlfriend to just another one of the guys. Only at night he'd still.Well.Act like my boyfriend if you catch my drift. Plus then I had to drag him down to DT to work. I mean that garage is his baby. It's the one thing that means more to him then that RX-7." I think I blushed. This was Brian I was telling this stuff too. I didn't want to talk about it to anyone but it was hard to say it to Brian.  
  
"Then one day while, ironically, I was writing down my feelings and wishing that if he didn't really want to be with me anymore he'd tell me so that we could move on he came in and did just that. He broke up with me. Told me he needed space and that he wanted to take a break."  
  
"I fought with him about it but not as much as I wanted to. It's perverse I know. I mean I was there wishing we'd deal with the problems we were having even if it meant we broke up then he told me he wanted to take a break and I got so mad. But I wasn't taking a break. There was no way. I told him we were together or not. He gave me that typical male bullshit about how it wasn't me it was him and he had issues that he had to figure out before he'd make a good boyfriend for me or anyone. I said so we're broken up then and he nodded." Brian looked shocked out of his mind. I guess everyone figured that Dom and I were one of those forever couples. That if we'd made it through his cheating and my resulting full time bitch impression and not trusting him to as much as run to the store on his own then we were going to make it through everything. Too bad it didn't work out that way.  
  
"So I stood up and started to pack my shit into my duffle. You should have seen the look on his face. He started going on about how he didn't want me to leave. After he'd just dumped me he told me he didn't think I'd leave. He honestly thought that we'd break up and I'd just keep living in his room and stuff while we were 'on a break.' Leaving was the hardest think I ever did but I did it. And I've been having nightmares ever since." I sighed and Brian stood up.  
  
"I really can't believe that Letty. So you and Dom are broken up? Like forever time to move on broken up?"  
  
"I don't know Brian. I fully plan on going back to L.A. I just realized on the way here that I'm not even sure who I am anymore. I've been living to be Dom's girlfriend for so long I don't know how to be Letty just to be Letty. He's so fucken selfish. He only thinks for himself." I sniffled but managed not to cry. "So that's why I'm here. I don't know when I'm going back. I hope that you can put up with me for a while if you have to."  
  
"Of course girl. You can stay as long as you want."  
  
"Ok. Oh, and I hope you know, when I go back, you're coming with me." Brian blanched then.  
  
"I don't know Letty. I'm doing ok here. I don't know if me going back after all this time is a good idea."  
  
"Brian. She never moved on. I don't think she can. For that matter I don't know if Dom can go on with his life without knowing all that you told me. Without knowing why you did what you did. When I go back you're coming with me." Brian just looked at me much in the way I imagine a deer looks into the headlights of an oncoming 18 wheeler. 


	7. Playing With Fire

Chapter 7 - Playing with Fire.  
  
AN: Is anyone still reading this? Is it going in a way that is interesting to anyone? I didn't get any reviews on my last update and I'm just wondering if I still have readers. Did I do something to make people stop reading? If not then leave a review. I'll take flames if people want to write them. They make excellent laughing material. I really love constructive criticism. Really! So review the story. Please. Say what's in your heart. I'm a big girl, I can take the honest truth.  
  
"Well, that won't be right away right?" Brian asked. I could see the wheels in his head spinning. I'd just bet he was thinking that he'd have lots of time to get out of coming with me. He could've been thinking that he'd have lots of time to get ready to leave Miami I guess but it wasn't likely judging by the look on his face.  
  
"I don't know when I'll be ready to go back. But it won't be any time in the next few months for sure. Besides that, I'll have to wait till the guys tell me that Dom seems ready to have me back, or that they tell me that he even wants me back. So you have time to prepare yourself."  
  
"Ok. We'll have another discussion about it when you have a definite time frame when you're leaving in mind."  
  
"There will be no further discussion except if you're riding with me or which one of your own cars you're driving." I told Brian in the voice that had once or twice made Dom quake and bow to my wishes. Brian got a very mutinous look on his face but dropped the issue. He clearly thought he still had a choice in the matter of going back to LA. He was sadly mistaken but I didn't want to fight with the man who was providing me with a roof for my head for the foreseeable future.  
  
I've been likened to a pit bull with a bone when I get something I don't want to give up or when I want something to happen. I'm tenacious and bull headed. I consider it one of my strong points. I know others often consider it one of my character flaws. But fuck 'em. If it wasn't for how well I look out for myself and get my own way I'd have been trampled by my parents and my childhood.  
  
"When are you going to see that Tej guy again? Should I go with you and talk to him about that job? I want to work and if I don't get that job I'll have to start looking elsewhere." I sounded confident to my own ears but I guess I was mistaken because Brian looked at me like he sensed my insecurity.  
  
"Letty, he'll give you the job. He isn't sure about a woman mechanic but as soon as he finds out you build the Nissan on your own he'll give you the job. And you don't even have to work if you don't want to. You can just stay here with me and treat this like a vacation if you want."  
  
It was nice of him to offer but I won't be a burden. I felt like I was one on the Toretto's often enough, no matter how much Van told me I wasn't and that they didn't mind me being around 24/7, and I wouldn't be one to anyone else. Of course it also likely stemmed from my own parents telling me I was a burden for them. Yeah, I'm sure I was. Taking care of a kid takes money away from the old drug and alcohol fund. Of course later, when I worked for Dom the feeling of being a burden went away, but for a lot of years I did feel like one. For the last while Dom's felt like a burden to me. I guess he has been one mentally for me after all. I turned my thoughts back to Brian.  
  
"Yeah, well thanks all the same Brian, really, thanks for the offer but I'd like to work. I'd like to work with you, and your other friends seemed cool but if I don't get that job then I'll have to find another one. I'd go crazy with nothing to do all day and night too."  
  
"I guess I understand that, but damn Letty, you've never seen what goes on at Tej's during the day. Even without a job you'd never be stuck with nothing to do." A huge grin split Brian's face. I had a moment to worry what evil thought had made him so happy before he grabbed my hand and started to drag me out the door.  
  
"Where are we going?" I asked, and my voice sounded breathless due to the early morning run that Brian seemed intent that I take.  
  
"You'll see. We're going to see Tej." Brian answered with a sly grin.  
  
Brian started dragging me off, not toward the garage that was still housing my car and where I assume this business of Tej's operates but along a path toward the noise of splashing and revving motors accompanied by laughter and loud music. We rounded the corner of another houseboat and the sight I saw then floored me.  
  
There was a huge party both on the modified dock and in the cool waters around it. Women were swimming, lounging in the water on inflatable rafts, lying in the sun on lounge chairs getting tans, and racing of all things, skidoos on the water. It was not at all what I expected to see. I didn't own a bathing suit as brief as what the girls on this wharf were wearing either.  
  
I guess I know I'm not ugly. I even likely know I'm pretty. I'm pretty physical with my work and my life so I'm in pretty good shape. I'm pretty comfortable with my body. I've worn enough belly baring skin tight shirts to prove that I don't mind if people see my skin, my shape. But I still can not see myself parading around an entire gathering of people with a string up my butt and the rest of it hanging out for the world to see. I've seen girls dressed like these ones were on the beaches around LA. But it's not every woman back home. It was every woman here. There was not one woman with her butt covered by more then a little triangle of cloth at the very top.  
  
Dom would never allow me to wear a bathing suit like the ones I was seeing now. He'd be worried that other guys might look at me. I made a resolution to go shopping for a new bathing suit as soon as I got a chance. It was a childish desire, the one I had that made me want to do the exact opposite of what I thought Dom would want me to do but it still felt good to do things I knew would piss him off.  
  
But I wanted to fit in here too. I wanted to try out the jet skis and I wanted to dress like the other girls. After all, there was no one here to tell me not to or shoot me dirty looks or tell me to go change. I was really going to look out of place in my tank top and cargos this time too, but it couldn't be helped.  
  
"My god Brian. What is this place?"  
  
"Well Tej is into everything in Miami. He's the guy to know. He owns the garage that we parked the cars in. Every hoist is almost new. He has every tool you'd ever need to use to work on any car. He owns the house the others live in. He owns this wharf and all the skis. He has a sweet truck. He runs everything at races. He acts like the bookie. He takes bets at races and here too. He organizes stuff. Decides who races and who races who. He has a couple mechanics and himself already but the main guy up at the garage is Jimmy. You'll meet him soon. He's like Jesse. But Tej spends most of his days back here."  
  
"I gotta try one of those jet skis." I couldn't stop staring all around me. It was almost too much to take in at once.  
  
"Let's find Tej. You have lots of time to play back here. This is on the go every day it doesn't rain. That's a lot of days in Miami."  
  
"Ok. Let's find Tej." I followed Brian along the dock as pretty girls all smiled at him and tried to keep his attention for more then 2 seconds. I got dirty looks from them all and wondered why. It was then that I realized we were still holding hands. Oh well, I didn't want Brian to think I didn't want to hold his hand and maybe it was giving him the excuse he needed not to stop and talk to the girls.  
  
I think that Brian was likely a terrible flirt at some point in his life. Even with me there and holding his hand he was still giving some of the very prettiest girls second looks. I wonder if he wants to be free of Mia.  
  
I mean, he is free of her in that she isn't here. But he's not free of her in his mind. But is the bond he still feels with her about guilt for the way he left? Or does he still care for her at all? I think Brian and I are going to have to have another heart to heart sometime. But it can be any time before we go back. No matter which scenario is more accurate Brian is still coming back with me. Mia and Dom, and the whole team really, deserve the same explanation I got. And they deserve it face to face, not second hand in my voice instead of Brian's. So he'll go back and tell them all his story. And if he doesn't want Mia then he can tell her that and tell her why. Then if he wants to leave he can with my blessing. Even though I'll miss him.  
  
We found Tej talking to the little chick that defended 'her bullit's' honour at races.  
  
"Brian, who's the girl again?"  
  
"Her name's Suki."  
  
"Is she Tej's girl?"  
  
"No. She's not."  
  
"It seems like she is. Why isn't she?"  
  
"She says that Tej doesn't have the right set of tools." Brian told me then winked. It took me a second to get what he was trying to tell me without telling me.  
  
"Oh." I think I blushed. I was use to girls who slutted after guys. But a girl who was scamming on other girls was novel to me. "She's a." I didn't really want to come right out and ask him is she was a lesbian.  
  
"Yeah." Brian said and then laughed at the stunned mixed with incredulous look on my face. Brian's friends had yet to see us walking their way.  
  
"Who's the other guy with the?. The tall guy?" He was definite potential.  
  
"The tall, black, bald guy by Tej, that guy?"  
  
"Yes Brian. That guy." I said, exasperated with the look on Brian's face.  
  
"That is my friend I was telling you about. Roman Pierce. The guy that did the job with me."  
  
"Oh. So I get to meet him?" I asked, trying to be cool. I was drawn to Roman Pierce. I don't know if it was the fun loving attitude that just poured off him in waves, the beautiful set of eyes the boy had, his style, what. But I wanted to meet him. Scared the shit out of me.  
  
He wasn't Dom, for one thing. It was strange in the extreme for me to be, I had to stop and think about what it was I was feeling for Roman Pierce. It was strange for me to be attracted to another man. I'd never been. Dom was the only one I'd ever wanted. I was attracted to Roman. That scared me even more. Too much.  
  
"On second thought Brian, I think I'm really tired. The sun is too much. I think I'll go back to the boat for now."  
  
"Oh no you don't Letty." Brian said and held on to my hand tighter as I tried to get it back. I don't know if Brian knew what I was feeling all over just looking at his friend but he wasn't letting me get away easily. I sighed and allowed him to lead me over. "Hey guys." Brian exclaimed.  
  
"Hey Bullit." Suki chirped and tipped her cheek up for Brian's kiss. I can't bring myself to like that girl. I'm sure she's sweet and all but she also knows it. She hits me as the kind of girl who acts like a perfect princess and is really nothing close.  
  
"Hey Bra." Roman said an clasped his friend in one of those manly hugs my guys always exchanged.  
  
"Brian." Tej said with a smile.  
  
"This is my friend Letty from last night." Brian said and drew me forward. I'd moved slowly to stand behind Brian. Out of the way.  
  
It was never like me to want to be out of the way. I always wanted to be the center of attention at home. I wanted all eyes on me and all the guys wanting me. I never noticed any of them but I wanted them to notice me. I always thought if more guys made overt plays for me then Dom wouldn't have taken my presence at his side so for granted.  
  
And I wanted all the girls to watch me. I was the one who set the trends. Well, the trends for the girls who didn't dress like the less they wore the better. I wanted them to hate me for having Dom and I wanted them to covet him. I wanted them to try to take him so that I could show them time and time again that they couldn't take him from me. I guess that backfired on me more then once but it didn't change my attitude on the whole situation.  
  
But as Brian drew me forward I was wishing the dock would swallow me up. "Hey guys." I managed.  
  
"Hi." Suki barely acknowledged me.  
  
"Hey. You're the girl from races last nigh right? Nice Nissan?" Tej asked.  
  
"That's me." I answered and thinking about my car brought out my confidence and made me smile.  
  
"I don't believe we've ever met before. I'm Roman Pierce. But call me Rome." He held his hand out to me.  
  
"Letitia. But call me Letty." I answered and smiled at him as I shook his hand. He noticed my other hand still in Brian's.  
  
"So how do you know Brian?" Rome asked me. I could tell he was trying to feel out if I was here as Brian's girl or if I was fair game. I had the strangest desire to make sure he knew I was free. For now.  
  
"Oh, Chumpy and I go way back." I grinned as Brian turned red.  
  
"Chumpy?" Rome laughed at Brian.  
  
"It's a long story." Brian mumbled.  
  
"Yeah, he has you all convinced he can race. He'll have some work to do to convince me of the same thing."  
  
"So, how long you stayin in Miami?" Rome asked me.  
  
"A while. Indefinit is a good word for it."  
  
"I see. Well, if you want someone to show you around you just let me know." Rome winked at me. He actually winked at me.  
  
"Well, that'd be great. If you have a free afternoon sometime I'd love to see what's fun round here." I told him. He looked like he just won a victory of some sort.  
  
"How's tomorrow then?" Wow, the boy sure didn't waste any time.  
  
"I don't know yet." I answered and Brian looked at Tej.  
  
"So, you gonna give her the job man. She's good as you'll find."  
  
"I gotta see her work Bri. I can't just give her the job."  
  
"She built her Nissan herself Tej. You know you can't have her working for the competition." Brian grinned and Rome laughed.  
  
"I think I need to see this car." Rome threw out.  
  
"Well, she can work the job for two weeks and if she works out then it's hers for as long as she wants it. That ok with you?" Tej asked me.  
  
"Sure. That's fine."  
  
"And she already needs a day off. Tomorrow." Rome looked a Tej.  
  
"Sure. Since she just got here and all." Tej laughed.  
  
"I'm gonna go look around. This is wild." I told the group and freed my hand from Brian's. As I started to wander off I got a feeling that Rome would have come with me but Brian stopped him. I hung close to try and hear what was said.  
  
"Rome, I wouldn't go there with Letty ok?"  
  
"Hell no it's not ok Brian. Unless she's your girl."  
  
"No, she's not my girl. Remember the guy? The one I told you about. The one from LA?"  
  
"The one with the sister?"  
  
"Yeah, that guy. Well, she's his girl."  
  
"Then what's she doin here?"  
  
"They had a fight." Brian wouldn't elaborate any more on what that meant to his friend. "But she fully plans on going back to him."  
  
"Brian, I want to get to know her, show her around. No one said I was going to marry the girl."  
  
"Well, she says that when she goes back I'm going with her. I guess I understand why and I'll likely go for a time. But if she goes back to him and he finds out any other guy had anything to do with her while she was here, the guy she had anything to do with is dead. I mean it. And this guy is just the guy to do it. He's huge and has a short fuse."  
  
"I'll be careful Brian but she's just a nice girl. A lonely nice girl. You need to chill out Bro."  
  
Brian never answered so I don't know what his reaction to that statement was. Brian was right. I did have this draw to get involved with Rome. And I was playing with fire. It only remained to be seen if I got burned. 


	8. You'll Never Get Out Alive

Chapter 8 - You'll never get out alive  
  
AN: thanks for letting me know that the story is being read. By the way, the emotions are confusing because Letty is confused. She loves Dom and without giving too much away she will end up back with him. Don't worry about that. That's the whole point of the story after all. But the point is also how she gets there. She needs to grow and remember who she is. I've decided to just tell the story from her point of view but then when it's done I may go and tell it again from Dom's point of view. You'll find out stuff from LA when she talks to the team on the phone. I really don't have this one planned out. It's a fly by the seat of my pants type of story that at this time is writing itself so I can't tell you how it's going to go, just that I have an ending in mind. Peace and enjoy.  
  
I walked away from Brian and his group of friends. I was lost in thought about what was up in my life. Here I was all upset and crying myself to sleep nights over Dom, then the first day I'm around people after I run away from the one man I've ever loved I get a school girl crush on another guy? It doesn't make sense. I don't know what it is.  
  
I sat down in a free lounge chair and pulled my shades down off my head and over my eyes and just watched the crowd of people ebb and flow around me. Rome was cute. Ok, he was damn hot and one of the finest guys I'd ever seen. But Dom was just as cute. So the attraction wasn't just over cute. Rome definitely didn't take life as serious as Dom. Maybe that was part of it. I heard this somewhere once, I don't remember where but it's true. Don't take your life too seriously; you'll never get out alive. It's true. No matter what you do you're going to end up dead someday. You may as well enjoy your life while you're living it. Dom didn't get that anymore. We never did anything just for fun anymore.  
  
We use to do stuff just for fun. We use to go to the beach as a team and swim and sunbath and play volley ball. We use to have barbeques all the time and laugh and joke as a team. We use to buy old cars and fix them up and sell them to see how much more then what we paid we could get for them. It was what we did every day at the garage I know, fix cars, but when it was these cars that we did on the side we all worked on them together and we had a good time doing it. Dom and I use to go out, just the two of us to movies and hold hands in the back row. We use to go to the drive in and fog up the windows. We use to go out to dinner and then walk on the beach. We use to go downtown and race the ricers and laugh about it together. But lately all we'd been doing was surviving.  
  
Hell, racing use to be fun. Then Dom decided that this, that and the other thing on his car needed to be replaced. And that stuff on my car and Leon's car and Vince's car wasn't good enough. And that we didn't make enough with the garage and the store to pay for it all. Then racing became serious. And only Dom was allowed to race because he was the only one who won consistently.  
  
Dom's the best racer on the team. I'm not going to try and dispute it because he is and I wouldn't want to take that away from him anyway. He had to work at it to some extent and it's something the men in his family have done for some time, I think he's the third generation or fourth maybe of Toretto's that race. But I'm close to as good as Dom and I like to race too. Dom took all the fun out of it for everyone because he acted like if we lost a race it would mark the end of us. He lost sight of the fact that we all like to race even though we aren't all next to unbeatable. We weren't around just to be his cheering section, but it was like he didn't know that.  
  
He always had a different reason not to let me race. 'It's not safe Letty.' 'We can't afford the money if you lose Letty.' 'Your car needs a new something before it's ready to race again Letty.' 'I can beat these guys and we need the money so let me take this one Letty.' It was always something, some excuse. He pulled the same shit on V and Leon too. I don't know why Leon put up with it. Vince does what Dom wants him to, I've given up on making that change but Leon's another story.  
  
Let's face it. If Leon wasn't dependant on Dom's good will for a place to live and a job he could likely take Dom in a race and win. Well, that's how Leon came to be a permanent fixture around the place anyway, so that's a proven fact, not a maybe or what if.  
  
Leon came to the team not too long after Van was killed. He rolled up on races one Saturday night and no one had ever heard of him before, never seen him around before. He wanted to race and of course Dom was the one to beat even then. It was just me and Dom and Vince and Mia around the place at the time. Dom's dad had been gone for about 3 months and the garage was DT by that time and no longer Toretto's garage.  
  
We really needed help around the garage too. It was getting to be too much for the three of us to handle. Mia was keeping up with the books ok but it was summer and she had no school. It was likely to get harder for her when she started her first year of college that fall, but at the time she was doing ok. We, the grease monkeys, on the other hand were swamped. Dom had quite the reputation on the streets and there was no shortage of people who wanted him to work on their cars. But it was hard to do when you were so far behind you had to tell people that it could be weeks before you had time to do something as simple as change shocks or whatever. But Dom was picky and he'd been seeing people who came for the job for weeks but no one was good enough.  
  
That Saturday night Leon was driving a skyline. That is the only reason some unknown got to race the 'great one' on his first night on the scene. Skylines are still rare and they were damn near unheard of back then. Leon always says he knew about them before all these stupid movies based off our crowds lives came out. Pisses him off that now all the Bev Hills crowd is trying to get one just because Daddy has money and they only want one because some movie told them it was the best car to have and some movie told them the thing to do to rebel against your trust fund and college education was to race your car on the street on the weekends cause it's illegal.  
  
But anyway Leon just pulled up in his yellow skyline that night and told someone he wanted to race. The attitude he got was mostly so what, get in line. There was always a list of guys waiting for their shot at Dom. Still is a line to this day. You have to be somebody. Edwin, Yenko, Justin, these are all guys who've proved they can race time and time again. It's why they get their shots at Dom. Dom ultimately does decide who he's going to race but I can't remember the last time he raced an unknown. Oh wait, it was Brian. Look how smart that was.  
  
You see, it's kind of a misconception in these movies. In the movies you show up, shoot your mouth off, and then get to race in a 3 g race against the best of the best. It doesn't work that way. You need to show up and prove you can race your car first. You might have to race someone going down the street in traffic just to start a name for yourself. If people start to say things like, 'see that NSX, he walked me downtown last night, damn I wonder what he's running.' That's when talk about you starts to go through our world and then it starts the big fish thinking about what you might be running and the fact that you might be a worthy competitor. I mean sure, the money spends the same no matter how hard Dom has to work to take it but he gets off on the race, on the rush, on the skill it takes him to win. So if he walks everyone he races then he doesn't really get much of a rush. If he has to run it to 160 and use his spray to win he gets that adrenaline high.  
  
So the crowd had Leon pretty much convinced he was going to have to go make a name for himself and come back before he was going to get to race anyone of consequence on that first night. But a rumour started to go through the crowd, passed on by people who knew what they were looking at when they saw Leon's car about what a skyline could do. And of course when Dom heard about the fact that there was a guy in a skyline at our races who wanted to race Dom personally invited the guy to ante up and race. It ties back into that whole adrenaline rush, wanting to race someone good thing. Dom figured if this guy had a skyline, unless the guy was a totally horrible driver it was going to be a real race for a change.  
  
And Dom wasn't wrong. Dom got walked that night. Leon owned him. It was the worst loss Dom's ever had. Leon schooled Dom that night. Dom took it with good humour and charmed Leon into a peak under the hood. Dom was impressed. If someone builds an engine that impresses Dom that's saying something. Dom was so impressed he forgot that he was supposed to hate everyone who made him look bad in front of his adoring public by making him lose.  
  
Dom started asking Leon what he was doing in town and it turned out that Leon had no plans. We all started asking him things like 'what made you decide to map the fuel curve like that?' 'Why a HKS turbo but a Greddy wastegate?' 'What's up with that intercooler?' Then Leon explained that he just drove and built the cars. He got Jesse out of the car and introduced the mastermind behind the strange yet wonderful engine we were looking at.  
  
Dom was all like 'so he designs it and you build it and race it' and Leon told him that was about it. Dom wanted to know if Jesse was good at anything but designs and Leon told Dom that Jesse was one hell of a mechanic and tuner too. When Dom found out they had no where to stay and they were going to be sleeping in the skyline that was it. He offered them our spare room while they got on their feet and a job in our garage and the rest is history. They've been with us ever since. 'While you get on your feet' turned into forever and we wouldn't have it any other way. Jesse'n Leon are like family now.  
  
The things that kid thinks to do with cars just wouldn't occur to anyone else but he tunes the best engines ever. He can hear a weak spot in a fuel MAP. That's unreal. He can smell an engine that's too rich or too lean. He knows instinctively how much boost an engine can take and not implode. Leon's his half brother and they're very close. They ran away from something in New Mexico, which is where they're from. Something really bad. They didn't want to talk about it and we didn't want to press so I don't really know what but it wasn't good. We'd all defend Jesse with our lives and I know Dom looks out for Leon too.  
  
Leon and Vince got close somehow. Vince doesn't often warm up to new people. It was a given that he'd like Jess. Jess needs more watching over then anyone else I've ever seen. He's got quite a knack for getting himself into trouble. Vince loves anyone who wants him to fight for them. But Leon can take care of himself. He's street smart and he can fight too. He's not as big as Vince but what he doesn't have in brute strength he makes up for in smarts. Vince and Leon just hit it off. They tease each other and have running contests they think I don't know about where they try to get more phone numbers then each other. Leon, the ladies man is up by 7 numbers last time I conned an update out of him.  
  
I'm making myself homesick which wasn't my intent when I came out here but all this stuff is likely still going on at home and I'm missing it. Which reminds me I need to call Vince again soon or he's going to send a search party. I told him I'd call every few weeks which means every few days or he's going to have Jesse start digging online to try to find me. I've been pretty careful not to leave a trail but Jesse is as scary with the computer and as he is with tuning and as good at finding stuff online as he is at scrounging car parts that we need.  
  
As I finished that thought something blocked out the sun. I looked up, and up and finally into the face of Rome. His eyes were also covered by shades.  
  
"What put that frown on your face Senorita?"  
  
"I was just squinting in the sun." I lied. I didn't want to think about home anymore let alone talk about it with a stranger. I could tell he knew I was lying.  
  
"I'd like to meet this car I've heard so much about. You think you could hook that up?" Rome asked me like a kid asking for candy. What is it about men and cars? But it was my car and one thing I loved was showing it off.  
  
"Sure. It's in the garage. You want to see it now?" Rome nodded so I stood up and started toward the garage. "So you and Brian work together sometimes?" I asked wanting to make conversation and get to know Rome better.  
  
"Yeah. When they need someone with street credentials they call us in. More for me then the white boy." Rome laughed and I joined him.  
  
"Sounds fun but you don't seem like the cop type." And he didn't either. He seemed too high strung for it. Too much like the law didn't really mean a lot to him. He didn't seem to take much seriously and it seemed like taking stuff serious was a pre-requisite for being a cop to me.  
  
"Well, I'm the opposite of the cop type. I'm not a cop, not like Brian. They just call me when they have a need of something I'm good at. But I get to keep the car they gave me when I did the thing with Brian which is cool."  
  
"What kind of car is it?" So the cops gave Rome a car too. I'm in the wrong profession. I want a free car like an Evo VII too.  
  
"You'll see." Rome wouldn't answer my question. "So you're the girl." Rome looked me up and down.  
  
"What girl?" I asked, one eyebrow raised. What girl and what was this about?  
  
"The queen that Bri told me about." Rome looked at me speculatively. "You know he wanted the guy from LA to do the job with him. The job he got me to do. He was too scared to ask the guy from LA."  
  
"The guy has a name. It's Dom. What makes you say he wanted Dom?"  
  
"Just the way he acted. The way he talks about the g.Dom to this day. He wanted to use the Verone job as a way to make up with Dom," Rome stuttered over the unfamiliar name each time he used it. "But he was scared that Dom didn't want to make up with him. Plus he was scared of the girl, the sister."  
  
"Her name's Mia." I told him and it came out kind of bitchy. Mia is not just a girl that dated Brian, nor is she just Dom's sister. She's a great person in her own right. Brian should have told his friends our real names for crying out loud.  
  
"Sorry. He's scared of Mia. He's such a player. I know you wouldn't know to look at him." We both laughed. Brian did look like a player. "And he was always in trouble over some chick. The girls all fell for him but he never fell for the girls. He was always immune to them. He'd use girls if he had to in his undercover work and he never kept a girlfriend longer then a few days. But the girl in LA, Mia," Rome added, looking at me. "Got to him. She got under his skin. She got through to Brian O'Connor and that never happened to him before. So he's been running scared ever since. You got him nervous now with making him go back when you go."  
  
"Good, he needs to be nervous. But I'm glad about Mia. She really fell for him too so I hope that at least they can both get some closure and move on or it'd be really cool if they could make another go at it, if you think that Brian still has feelings for her." Rome just nodded.  
  
At the door of the garage I stopped, hand on the doorknob. "You ready for this?"  
  
"Yeah. I'm ready but you got me wondering what kind of car I'm about to see." I opened the door and we walked in. Rome went right up to my car. It was the only one he didn't recognize I guess and that was likely how he knew it was mine. He walked around it. "This is nice."  
  
"Thanks." I told him. I was grinning like an idiot. I love it when people compliment me on the car. I know Dom picked it out and painted it but I built it. No one but me. And Jesse if I'm fair. But building it was one thing Dom didn't really have a hand in. It was all me, what I wanted.  
  
We looked over my car some more and I even let Rome talk me into showing him the engine. Don't know how he did that. What I have under the hood is very closely guarded secret under most circumstances. Rome was suitably impressed. He told me he wanted a drive in it someday and I agreed to take him for a spin sometime.  
  
Then he showed me his Eclipse Spyder that he got from the cops for the job he did. What a sweet car. But ugly. The rims on it are like 20's and chrome. Which would be ok if it wasn't for the horrible, flashy paint on it. It's such a nice car, with really nice rims but because of the paint it looks totally riced out. Not at all like a serious race car. I racked my brain for what to say before he realized I didn't really like the look of it.  
  
"Nice rims. What's your quarter mile time?" I hoped to throw him off the looks debate by getting him to brag about his numbers.  
  
"Thanks. My best quarter mile was 13.2@120." He was giving me a look. I think he knew what was on my mind.  
  
"Not bad." I nodded as I pretended to think about his stats.  
  
"What's your best time in your bad boy?" Rome asked me. He was smiling. I think he expected his time to be impossible for me to beat. I get that a lot. Because I'm a girl I won't have a good quarter time. People who think that are wrong.  
  
"11.4@140." I grinned as I told him.  
  
"Really?" He asked me. Why do people always do that when I tell them my time? Like I'm going to tell them if I'm lying. But I'm not. That's my time.  
  
"Yeah, that's my best time. That's without the spray too."  
  
"No shit. I'm gonna have to get my ass to the track and do some practising. You've got the best time I've ever heard of and that includes Bri in that rocket ship he drives."  
  
"I can beat that time. Dom's best time is 9.9 at 160 on the spray of course."  
  
"Holy shit. So this Dom guy's pretty special then?"  
  
"Yeah. Pretty special." I answered and we locked up the garage and walked back down to where Brian was still sitting with Tej and Suki. It was time to call home again and I wasn't looking forward to it. I had to keep not only my location secret now but who I was staying with and what I was doing. It was not going to be fun. 


	9. We'll figure it out

Chapter 9 - We'll figure it out  
  
AN: Sorry this is short but I've been so busy. I'll try to update again sooner this time. I lost my computer for repairs all over my Christmas break and while I had a loaner it just wasn't the same and I didn't like writing on it so I didn't. *sigh*. But I have mine back and it's all fixed up now so I hope it gets me back into the writing mood. So sorry again this is short.  
  
"So, what happened between you'n Dom?" Rome asked me as we walked back toward the party that was life for this Miami team.  
  
"We had a fight." I told him. I didn't really want to talk about it. It was still too raw, too close to the surface. But then again I did want to talk about it because I wanted people to go try and convince me it was going to be ok. It was like having a tooth fall out. It hurt like hell but even though you knew it was going to hurt you couldn't help yourself, you had to stick your tongue into the space where the tooth was and check and see if it was really gone. It was like talking about leaving Dom was a reality check that he was really gone. But it still hurt like hell and it was still a raw sore. It only remained to be seen if it toughened up and healed over. And how much it was going to hurt when I went back to LA and the tooth started to grow back in.  
  
"Just a fight?"  
  
"No. One hell of a fight. A fight where he decided he needed some time to himself so I left. He didn't make me leave, or want me to leave. He just wanted to take some time. But I had to get out of the situation after that." I glanced at Rome to see how he was taking the info I was giving him so stingily.  
  
"But you still love him?"  
  
"Yeah. But I'm still really mad too. I guess I'm not really sure how I feel about him. It's 6 years of history that I don't want to lose or discount. It was 6 good years for the most part. I guess I'm waiting to see how I feel about him after some time apart. No matter what I'll have to go home and confront him sometime. If he's changed then I have to think we'll get back together."  
  
"So in the mean time you came to Miami to see Brian?"  
  
"No. If I'd known where Brian was I would have come for him a long time ago. I just came here because it's on the other side of the country and its warm here. Finding Brian was just a bonus. But Brian and my team have stuff they need to work out. So he'll be coming home with me." I laughed. "He doesn't really think it'll happen yet but it will. But if things don't work out and Brian wants to come back here then I think I might come back with him."  
  
"Cool. So what are you doing tonight?" Rome changed the subject like he didn't want to think about Dom or my team back in LA anymore. I didn't really know what I was doing. Rome was going to ask me out and I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with him all of a sudden.  
  
"I don't really know. I haven't even unpacked yet. I guess I should do that and I have a phone call or two to make." Rome nodded like he understood.  
  
"Cool. Maybe I'll drop by later and see what you love birds are up to." Rome grinned at me.  
  
"Me'n Brian?" I laughed. "Never. Ever. I don't even see Brian like that. But speaking of Brian, I better find him. We have some stuff to sort out." I told Rome as neared Brian and the rest of his team.  
  
"Like what?" Rome asked me.  
  
"Like where I'm going to stay permanently and stuff." I answered Rome. I had to ask Brian for a way to call home that couldn't be traced and I figured he would be the guy who would know how to do that. If the guys got a hold of even the Miami area code let alone a whole phone number my bid for some freedom was over.  
  
"I thought you were going to stay with us?" Rome asked me and he looked kind of like a child who wanted some candy and was told he was going to get it but then it was snatched back.  
  
"I am. But I might stay with Brian on his boat. I know Brian and all."  
  
"Yeah, but that boat gets awful cramped. That's why Brian and I don't share." Rome grinned at me. "No privacy."  
  
"Yeah. I worry about that for Brian but I don't really need much in the line of privacy. Chumpy and I will figure it out." 


	10. Moments of Doubt

Chapter 10 - Moments of Doubt.  
  
I broke away from the group of friends on the wharf as soon as I could. There were several reasons for this. One, I had to go make a phone call. No matter how much I dreaded it, it was just putting it off. It wasn't going to go away no matter how long I convinced myself I could just do it later.  
  
And two, I felt like an outsider looking in. These people, this group of Miami friends knew each other well. They were us. But I didn't fit in. I finally knew how Brian had felt when Dom had first brought him back to be on our team.  
  
Most of us had been hostile toward Brian at first. Ok, well, really all the other guys were hostile. We had our team and we were happy with the status quo. We didn't think we needed another team member. I didn't really mind because it was obvious that Mia liked him and Mia deserved to be happy for a change. But the guys hated having him around at first. And we were so close. Me and Mia tried to include Brian but the guys never did so Brian must have known it was an effort to include him.  
  
Maybe it wasn't for Dom. But Dom was just using Brian like he uses Vince. I mean, sure Dom might have really liked Brian too, but at first he just used Brian to show Vince and Leon that they were expendable. Dom brought Brian back into our party that night to say to us that he was pissed the guys didn't go find him sooner and that every last one of us could be replaced because so many people would love the chance to be on the team of Dominic Toretto. It was like his way of telling us to watch how we treated him.  
  
I mean, look at what he did to me that night. He asked Leon what other girls were around when he knew I could hear every word he said. How what that supposed to make me feel? After years and years of us as a couple he has a bad night and he asked what other girls were around. He was just doing that to try and drive home to me that any number of other girls would love to be his girlfriend. I knew that already. But I was supposed to be his girlfriend. He was supposed to love me. Our relationship wasn't supposed to be some sort of reward to me for being a good little team mate.  
  
It was supposed to be love. But he had to try and make me feel inferior to him. I mean for crying out loud, how was I supposed to know he'd been running from the cops? He had a cell phone like everyone else on the team. He could have called home for a ride, for help. But he figured that we should all go searching for him right away because life as we knew it would stop for us all without him. Well, at least I'm proving him wrong right now aren't I? My life is still going, without him.  
  
And then, I had to drag him off upstairs. The team and the guests all thought it was so that I could keep him by my side with my body. Ha! It was to yell at his sorry ass for acting like a braying jackass. To make it clear I wouldn't tolerate him asking about other girls in front of me when I'd already caught him with other girls enough times to take him seriously. He seemed to get the message that night.  
  
But it sure was funny to see the look on Brian's face when Dom told him that he still owed him a 10 second car. I meant 'oh shit' when I said it. No one owed a debt like that to Dom Toretto and didn't pay it back. Poor Brian didn't know what he was getting into that night but he sure paid Dom back. Twice over if you really think about it. Once with the supra and once with Dom's own freedom. I wonder which Dom found more valuable. Well, really I know the answer to that. You know, if Dom had gotten caught and gone back to prison I would have lost him forever. He'd have made the cops kill him to take him in or he'd have killed himself in jail. He said he'd never go back and he meant it. Every time he said it there was this cold look in his eyes. I could tell he meant it.  
  
Dom had gotten in more fights because of his attitude around races then I can even count anymore. That 'I run the show, I'm the man, watch how you treat me' attitude turned people off and some got so mad at him they started a fight with him. Dom won most of the fights which just reinforced Dom's attitude. But when he tried that attitude on us it often blew up in his face.  
  
That's one of the ways that he's selfish. I guess you'd have to say he's full of his own importance. Maybe less so now that I'm gone. Or maybe that's just me being full of my own self importance. After all, I sure was easy for him to dump.  
  
I guess that's not even really fair. He just wanted to take a break after all. But he wasn't very forthcoming about what he planned to do on this break or why he wanted it. After all, what did he need a break for? Why couldn't he have just told me to move back into the spare room? It was where I stayed before Van died and Dom and I decided to share one room. His insistence that we had to 'take a break' made me sure he wanted to play around on me some more but didn't want to deal with the guilt he got when he cheated on me. After all if we were on a break and he slept with some other girl it wouldn't really be cheating. If he needed space you'd think he would have just asked for it, not told me he wanted to take a break.  
  
I was almost back to the boat when Brian caught up with me.  
  
"Where you going Letty?" Brian asked, out of breath from racing to catch me.  
  
"I have to call home. If I don't check in with V every once in a while he'll decide I'm in some sort of trouble and form a search party."  
  
"Does Vince have caller ID?" Brian asked. I didn't get it. Why was that important?  
  
"I just call the house Bri. So yeah, we have caller ID. Why?"  
  
"Cause B. O'Connor is likely not what you want to have come up on Dom's caller ID." Brian told me and winced.  
  
"No, I guess not. Well shit. What am I gonna do? I have to call. Oh shit. I called from the motel here in Miami. What if Vince is already in Miami looking for me?" I started to panic. What if the team was here looking for me. I'd been so stupid to call from my motel room. I should have bought some sort of cell phone or something to call with.  
  
"Well, chances are they'd have found you by now. If they found anyone who had anything to do with races then they'd know that Tej had a new girl staying with him who drove a purple Silvia because it's all over town. You beating that guy on your first night made the Miami racing news." Brian was walking toward the boat with me. He followed me in and went into his room.  
  
"What can I do Brian? I need to call." I called out after him. Brian came back into the kitchen carrying something.  
  
"Here." He handed me what he was carrying. It was a cell phone.  
  
"What's this?" I knew it was a cell phone. But why would I use his cell phone to call. It would be just as bad as the house phone. "Isn't this just as bad?"  
  
"Nope. The cops gave me that phone. It comes up as unknown name and private number. It's also totally untraceable. So you can call and talk as long as you want. They won't be able to trace the call. Not even Jesse can trace that phone."  
  
"Thanks Brian."  
  
"No problem." And with a smile he left me alone to make my call. I went into my room and threw myself down on the bed with a sigh. It was the moment of truth. Well, I had nothing to lose. Except my sanity if I had to talk to Dom before I was ready. I dialled and listened to the ringing.  
  
"Hello." Leon answered the phone.  
  
"Hey Le." I tried to sound up beat.  
  
"Letty! Where the hell you been at?" Leon exclaimed. I hadn't spoken to Leon much since I'd left.  
  
"I've been travelling. How's it going there?" I asked.  
  
"Travelling huh? To where?"  
  
"No dice Leon. I'm not telling. So, how's the garage?"  
  
"Fine. Backed up without you there. I guess we never realized just how much work you do till you weren't around anymore. But it's ok. The big guy's not so good though." Leon tried to slip that into the conversation without pissing me off.  
  
"Really? How's he not so good?"  
  
"Well, he don't talk much anymore. He's always pissed. He even snapped at Jesse a few times. It's not like him. He asks Vince about you all the time too. Like Vince knows something he ain't telling or something."  
  
"Really? He ever say he wanted me to come back. That he was ready to get back together?" Dom snapping at Jesse, while childish, was a good sign too. Dom had a soft spot for Jesse. He never snapped or yelled at Jesse. He knew Jesse was too high strung to handle it so he always went easy on Jess. He knew his displeasure was enough, he knew he didn't have to yell.  
  
"Naw Dawg. He's just cranky." Leon didn't try to lie to me, even over the phone.  
  
"Well then. Is Jesse ok? He dealing alright?"  
  
"Yeah, the kid's ok. He's gonna be ok too. I guess you ain't coming home any time soon then huh?"  
  
"Nope. I don't think so. I'm having a good time here." I lied so easily. Well, I was having a good time so far. That didn't mean I didn't want to go home.  
  
"Must be nice for you girl. No grumpy Dom and no hotter then hell garage to slave in for you."  
  
"Hey. I got a job in a garage too. I have to eat, and to eat I have to work. But it's a cool garage." I wanted to tell him more but I didn't want to give too much away. Tej's operation was pretty unique.  
  
"Really? You got a job. I figured you was just gonna hang out and race where ever you ended up. You working as some grease monkey really ain't gonna go over well with Vince or Dom. I mean, you working with us is one thing but you working your ass off for some other guy.That just ain't right." Leon growled at me in concern.  
  
I was touched by his worry over me but it wasn't going to change the fact that I had to work. I never wanted to take handouts. It's just not in me to do it. It was the same in high school. I knew that my teachers would have went easy on me knowing what my home life was like. But I never wanted them to. I work for mine. It's how I am. A girl has to take care of herself in this world. When you lose site of that you end up like me. With your world upside down because you let some man take care of you to the point of depending on it. And then when he realizes he wants a break from taking care of you, you're left in the cold learning how to take care of yourself all over again. Hell, it was hard enough the first time.  
  
"I like where I work Leon. How do you know I don't work for a woman?" I giggled.  
  
"I don't know that girl. Do you work for a woman?" Leon asked. He was thinking that a girl who owned a garage might be just the woman to make him stop his player ways I'd guess. I thought about pretending that Suki owned the garage but I decided against it.  
  
"Naw, but I could. I could own my own garage you know. No reason why I couldn't." I grinned because the silence on the line got tense. Like Leon thought that I was mad at him for implying that girls can't run garages.  
  
"No reason why you couldn't Let, but you're one in a million." Leon chuckled, having just saved his own ass.  
  
"Glad someone thinks so, you green eyed flatterer." He laughed at me. "Put V on the line would ya?" I asked.  
  
"Sure." He paused for a second. "I miss you Let." He finally added. Of course he did. His world was still messed up because he hadn't learned how to live is life without me in it yet. But he would. I hope he doesn't but I think he will.  
  
"I miss you too Le." I answered him and heard him call out for Vince.  
  
"Wha?" Vince said into the phone. Clearly Leon did not tell him who was on the line.  
  
"Is that any way to talk to me V? Am I bothering you?" I asked, trying to sound hurt.  
  
"Of course not Let. This idiot friend of yours just didn't tell me who was on the line." Vince answered, trying to save his ass from my anger. I heard Leon's yelp as he was on the receiving end of a Vince punch or slap. They were always carrying on like that. I loved to watch them do it. I miss them all so much. I hid it and continued talking to V.  
  
"I see. So how's it going?" I asked him the same question figuring he'd have his own answer for me.  
  
"Damn girl. I have to work twice as hard without you here."  
  
"Yeah, you guys never knew how much of your slack I picked up huh?" I laughed out.  
  
"No. When you comin home Let? I can't go much longer with Dom in this mood without killing him." Vince said and he sounded serious.  
  
"But he's yo boy. You go way back. Why would you wanna kill him?" Vince always put up with Dom's shit with good humour. He never said anything about Dom. He just put up with the shit with silence. He said something to him once I think, about Brian. He was so convinced that Brian was a cop he wouldn't let that one go. He badgered Dom about that. But mostly he just kept his bitching to himself.  
  
"Yeah, but he snaps at everyone and mopes around. It's getting on my fucking nerves."  
  
Yep same old Vince. Same tuff attitude and foul mouth. But Dom being upset about me not being around made me feel good. Except that him moping around meant he wasn't getting over much of anything.  
  
"Well, get him out more or something man. Remind him he had stuff he had to do'n shit." I told Vince.  
  
"Yeah, like we ever get him to do much but go to work and yell at us all."  
  
"You mean he doesn't go to races?" That would be something for sure. Dom never missed a race.  
  
"He says he doesn't have the head for it right now. So Leon'n I have been going without him. Leon's getting to race for a change. I have a few times too. I don't know why he won't go. Likely has something to do with the fact that he's missing his partner in crime."  
  
"He hasn't been my partner for a long time V. We've been two people with lives who happened to intersect for a while now."  
  
"Yeah, well, he must be missing the traffic or something then." Vince laughed. "You sure you ok?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm great really. I got it goin' on. You know when I told you I was going racing the other night?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Well I won a car."  
  
"No shit! You did?"  
  
"Yeah. An MR-2. I sold it back to the kid for 20 g's. It was a sweet night. That's how I got my job here."  
  
"Way to go baby. That's my girl. You always did have a way of taking care of yourself and a fuckin horseshoe up your ass."  
  
"There was no luck in what I did V. It was all skill." I laughed. "Now that you know I'm ok and alive n'shit can you put Mia on the phone?"  
  
"Sure." He turned his head. "Mia, phone!" He shouted. I bet the whole neighbourhood knew Mia had a call.  
  
"Hello?" Mia sounded uncertain, like she had no idea who would be calling her.  
  
"Hey Mi. How you livin'?"  
  
"Letty. I'm ok. How're you?"  
  
"Good, good. Mia, can we talk?"  
  
"That sounds ominous. Talk about what?"  
  
"Stuff. Like are you alone to really talk or do you have an audience?"  
  
"I can be alone in a second. Letty are you really ok?" She asked and I could hear her walking up the stairs. The 3rd, 7th, and 11th stairs creak. I heard the door of her room close.  
  
"I'm ok but confused about something and I want to ask you about it."  
  
"Ok, shoot." Mia must have lain down on her bed because I heard it creak under her.  
  
"Well. Where I am I got this job right."  
  
"uhuh." She prompted me to continue.  
  
"And there's this guy at my new job. I think he likes me. And I kinda like him. But I still love Dom."  
  
"Shit Letty. A new guy? Is he cute?"  
  
"Yeah. So the thing is I like the guy and he likes me but I still want to take Dom back. But while I'm here I want to have fun with the new guy." I started to cry. I tried not to but I couldn't. I was so confused about the whole Rome thing. "Am I a slut or something Mia? I mean how can I love Dom and want to be with this other guy all at the same time?"  
  
"Oh Letty. It's ok. Really. I mean you're all alone. You have no one you know around you. You're on the rebound from your break up with my idiot brother. It doesn't make you a slut. Are you going to get with this other guy?"  
  
"That's just it. I want to, but I think if I did I'd be some sort of slut. And it would be like cheating on Dom."  
  
"Letty, you can't cheat on Dom. You broke up." Mia tried to reassure me.  
  
"No we didn't." I yelled. I couldn't help it. I was all mixed up inside again. "We're on a break."  
  
"Well, ok then sweetie." Mia tried to calm me down. "But either way it was his idea. You just want to have a good time with the new guy right? Have a few good times. There's nothing wrong with that. As long as you come home someday and either take Dom back and try to work it out or at least come home and explain to him why you're not going to. You're not a slut."  
  
"Thanks Mia." It meant a lot to me that she didn't hate me for even thinking of seeing another guy other then her brother. And I guess it wasn't right of me to say sleeping with only the second guy of my life made me a slut. I didn't think Mia was a slut and I know she's been with more then two guys. I mean at this point I've only been with one.  
  
"Hey. I love you Letty. I loved you before you dated Dom and if you don't date him anymore I'll still love you."  
  
"I love you too Mia."  
  
"So this other guy, is he cute?" Mia asked and I could hear the speculation in her voice.  
  
"Oh yeah. He's cute. He's tall, and built and really dark. He drives a convertible eclipse. He's just really fun. He knows how to have a good time. I only met him a few times and I already know he's really fun."  
  
"Well, that sounds exciting. It sounds like something you need." Mia reassured me.  
  
"Thanks Mi. Well, I guess I should go." I didn't want to sever the link but I'd tied up the phone long enough.  
  
"Ok. Call again soon ok. Let me know how it goes with your new friend."  
  
"I will. Bye." And with that I hung up and went to the bathroom to try and fix my eyes. I sat down to watch some TV and a short time later Brian came back.  
  
"How'd it go?" Brian asked me.  
  
"Good. No one's gonna come hunting me down and I didn't have to talk to Dom." Brian laughed at that. "Brian, we never did talk about where I was gonna stay."  
  
"Stay here if you want or I'll help you move up to Tej's." Brian told me and I couldn't read a preference out of his demeanour.  
  
"You sure it's ok if I stay here. It's kinda cramped and I don't want to cramp your style or anything by being here."  
  
"You won't. I don't have much of a life outside of racing. But if you're hinting that there's not enough space for you here you can go to Tej's. It won't hurt my feelings or anything."  
  
"I'll stay here if it's ok then. I know you and I'm more comfortable here then I would be with strangers." I was just being honest.  
  
"Sure. Stay here then. I don't mind. Really."  
  
"Ok. And if you ever change your mind on that promise you'll let me know."  
  
"I promise." Brian rolled his eyes at me.  
  
"Ok. Now that that's settled, I'd guess you don't eat many home cooked meals around here."  
  
"You'd guess right."  
  
"Ok then. Take me grocery shopping and I'll cook us a real dinner."  
  
"Alright!" Brian answered and looked genuinely happy. I don't know if he knew I wasn't much of a cook compared to Mia. But I did ok and it was better then the microwave crap that was all Brian had in the house.  
  
"The way to any man's heart is via his gut so they say and Chumpy it seems you ain't different." I laughed. Brian laughed back.  
  
We headed out to go shopping for food. 


	11. Why Corona

Chapter 11 - Why Corona?  
  
300 dollars of my winnings later I was satisfied we had enough food in the house to keep us alive for a while. Brian tried to pay but I wouldn't have it. I told him that since I was going to be eating the food I should pay for it. After all, he was evidently happy with what passed for food at his house already. It was me that wanted to have more then bread, beer, and microwave dinners in the house. I was use to having vegetables and fruit and real meat around a kitchen. Not lean cuisine and Hungry Man dinners. Which seemed to me to be some sort of oxymoron. Brian might be a hungry man but he sure didn't need the lean cuisines. He was already pretty lean.  
  
One thing I'm good at cooking is fajitas and Mexican rice. I decided to make that for supper. Brian was the kind of guy who'd eat anything edible so it wasn't like he was going to complain. As long as I didn't pull a Letty and burn the food. There's a few things I'm good at cooking but mostly I'm a kitchen disaster. I tend to burn meals.  
  
I do that a lot, actually. I forget I'm cooking and stop watching the food. Stuff burns so quick. I start a meal, and then think I'll just play a little Playstation while I wait and before I know it GTA 3 is more important then anything else. It stays that way till the acrid stench of burnt food makes me aware I forgot the dinner. Again. Or the sight of Vince running with the little fire extinguisher out of his car toward the black peals of smoke leaving the kitchen takes my attention. It's like a running joke around our place. I shouldn't be allowed to cook and Mia shouldn't be allowed to undertake any sort of mechanical work on any car on the planet.  
  
She's as hopeless around tools as I am around anything more complicated then my fajitas in the kitchen. But we do ok as long as I'm around to remind the guys that girls can do the car thing and she's around to make sure that we don't all die of malnutrition. I can make simple things. We'd never starve if I could keep my mind in the kitchen and out of the engine bay of a car or the digital world of a video game. But if we had to depend on any of the guys to cook we'd all starve. Well, all but Dominic.  
  
Jesse finally learned how to scramble eggs and make toast. That's the extent of what he can cook. It took forever for him to learn to do that. He has my problem when it comes to cooking, keeping his mind on what he's doing. But then again Jesse has that same problem with keeping his mind on anything, except engines. And girls. For the one night they interest him anyway. But most other things are easy for him to forget, or lose track of.  
  
Leon can make Kraft dinner. I gather he had to make a lot of it as a kid. He hates it, but if he has to cook for himself its Kraft dinner he makes. He can boil water and dump in the pre-packaged noodles and that's it. You'd think that spaghetti would've been a pretty natural progression for him but when Mia tried to teach him to make spaghetti instead he almost burned the kitchen down. You should have seen the look on V's face when he came running with the fire extinguisher to find Leon coughing in the smoke instead of me running the same way as him from the floor in front of the TV. It was priceless.  
  
Vince. Well, let's just say that the one time Vince tried to cook a meal when the rest of us were sick with the flu and we all wished we'd just gone hungry. The after effects of eating the meal Vince cooked were worse then any flu. He's banned from the kitchen now. Well, we do let him make his own coffee. And play fireman. That's about it.  
  
Dom has his father's talent for cooking Italian food. He can make anything he wants to and it's so good. He's so funny looking in the kitchen too. His big muscles rippling under his little tight wife beaters while he gathers ingredients and fills pots. He'd cook and I'd sit at the counter and watch him. We'd talk and he'd make dinner. Dom in the kitchen fascinated me. For a man his size he moves with so much grace. Every movement is precise and without wasted effort. He does everything with the minimum energy needed. Its how he drives to. But he made the kitchen seem even smaller then it was with his sheer size. But lately the only cooking he'd ever do was BBQ the chicken while Mia made everything else. It was like he was too good to cook a meal for us. For his family. Almost like he'd started to think that cooking a meal was a woman's job or something.  
  
But I don't really know. I mean, he looked up to his dad more then anyone in the world and his dad cooked for us every night. No one ever thought that Van was less of a man over it. So maybe Dom doesn't think that way. But all I know is every time we asked him to make us one of the things he made better then anyone else he always had some thin excuse why he didn't want to or couldn't.  
  
I'm wondering if this latest fuck up with Dom isn't over something to do with his dad. I mean, it's been a good few years since Van died but Dom was so close to his father. It really hit him hard. It hit all of us hard. He was like a father to me too. And Mia was and really still is such a sensitive girl. And Vince really looked up to Van too. He learned most of what he knows about cars from Van too.  
  
Vince bought his first car with money that no one wants to know how he got. He didn't work at any 'real' job. He just disappeared from time to time and came back from where ever he went with money. I still don't know all of what he does but I'm sure that he's not the nicest man in the world to people he doesn't know. Sometimes he gets this look in his eyes that scares me, mostly when he thinks no one is looking. He went to jail once for armed robbery. Big surprise huh?  
  
The only thing Dom ever did before that was illegal was assault Kenny Linder. He was his father's son. Van was a law abiding man. He would never have condoned the street racing or anything else we got into. He'd have been so disappointed. He never found out about Vince and whatever the hell he was into. Mrs. Toretto died giving birth to Mia so I never knew her and neither did Mia. Dom remembers her, but not much. He was only four when she died. Van was sort of like a den mother and father rolled into one. He taught us all cars, though Mia was never good at them. He taught us all to cook but only Mia and Dom caught on. He dragged us all to church.  
  
They were a religious family. Mia still is. Dom, not so much. I never took to it. I went only because Mia wanted the company, not because I was much of a catholic. All those sins and talk of hell. I didn't want to believe that any god of the world could be so mean. Plus I was already going to hell according to the church for sleeping with Dom before we were married, so why worry about anything else. I sure as hell wasn't going to stop sleeping with Dom. It was. Earth shattering. Explosive. Moving. Every cliché thing that you ever heard sex could be the sex I had with Dom was.  
  
But anyway, want an even bigger surprise then Vince the armed robber? I was there with him. Yep, that's right. I held up a convenience store with Vince. It was right after Dom went to jail. So Van was dead, Dom was gone for the better part of two years and things were looking grim. Somehow Mia got to stay in her family home with Vince and I even though she was only 17. There was no one to take her in, no where else for her to go. I guess letting her stay in her own home with no official guardian looked better then sending her to a home and making her a ward of the state for 8 months.  
  
We had some money Van had left Mia and Dom. We had some money that Vince made doing what ever it was he did. We both, Vince and I, made some money racing but it wasn't enough to pay all the bills and keep the house and feed ourselves. We ran Van's garage but without Dom's reputation to fall back on the customers weren't exactly flocking to us. Plus with just me and Vince doing the work we couldn't take that many customers at a time. Mia ran the store but she was all alone too so she couldn't keep it open all the time and go to school. She had to keep going to school. Mia's so smart. She's gonna make something of herself. Something wonderful. She's going to do something good for the world. Not just take from it like the rest of us. And it was important, both to me and V that Mia got to stay in school. V made me finish high school but nothing he could say could make me go any further. I knew what I wanted to do with my life. But I didn't want to see MY Mia slave to run Dom's store and garage for him for the rest of her life. So about 4 months after Dom went in we had our brilliant plan and Vince joined Dom for 6 months and I did 6 in a juvenile centre.  
  
Vince and I didn't think about what that would mean to Mia. She was all alone for 6 months. I guess, with the foolishness of youth we never counted on getting caught. In the scenario we envisioned we got away with enough money to keep the house up till Dom came home. In reality we went got incarcerated. It didn't work out like we planned.  
  
Vince didn't want to take me. He really didn't. I found out what he was planning by mistake and insisted on being included. I was lost without Dom. Lost without Van. It was a very bleak time in all our lives. But that plan of Vince's gave me something to care about. Something to have an interest in when I'd sort of lost my interest in life all together. I wanted to do it for Mia. Vince wanted to do it for us. He was half in love with Mia ever since she was 16. She looked up to 'her V' like a second older brother. Vince is my boy, my partner in crime. She couldn't turn the love she had for him as a brother into love for a man. Sometimes I wish she could. But losing Vince to jail was almost as hard on her as losing Dom, plus she lost me at the same time.  
  
So Vince and I went down for it. It was a foolish, childish plan. We thought we were foolproof. There is no such thing. This fact was proven with the truck disaster once again. My mug shot is actually rather flattering. Bet that's a new one. Vince looks like the kind of guy you don't want to meet in any sort of dark area in his. But wait, that's the kind of guy Vince is. But not with us, not with family. Dom just looks sad in his mug shot. No one knows just how much remorse Dom carries in his soul for what he did to Kenny Linder. He's soft hearted. But I'll never let that get back to him. He'd deny it with his last breath. But look at Leon and Jesse. They had no where and I think Dom saw the desperation in their eyes. And he made it sound like we needed them and offered them a place with us, on our team. Well, we did need them, but not enough to take them into our home too. But Dom knew they needed a place to crash. But he couldn't let on he did it to be nice, he did it because it was practical.  
  
We held on, as Mia says, by the grace of god, till Dom got out of jail. When he came back he was so different from the Dom I had known. Gone was the boy of 21 who'd left us. Good natured but cocky. Muscled, but lightly in a natural way. Shy by times but openly affectionate with me. With all his family. The man who returned was harder then the boy who left. He had less compassion. Or I should say less obvious compassion. It could still be found. Like how he took in Leon and Jess. The man who returned was huge and had an ice cold temper. He didn't seem to get mad anymore. He got deathly calm. He was always holding himself in the tightest of control. He was scared to show his feelings. He thought that what he did to Kenny Linder was what happened when he let his feelings show, when he didn't keep a tight leash on them.  
  
Sometimes when I was in bed first waiting for him to come up I'd lay on my side and watch the door, waiting for him to open it and I'd hope against hope the Dom that would be silhouetted there in our doorway by the hall light would be the slim boy just starting to come into his adult muscle, not the relative stranger that fate had sent me back from Lompoc.  
  
He'd always been slightly embarrassed about showing any sappy feelings but he was a man after all. Most of them are like that. But he'd been outwardly affectionate with Mia and me before. He always had a hug and a kiss for Mia's forehead before and then when he came back it was like he hated to be touched. He also always use to be holding me, touching me, kissing me, he liked us to be touching in some way. But when he came back he didn't really seem to want to do that anymore. He wanted his personal space at all times. Except when we were intimate.  
  
He got over it eventually. He got back into hugs for Mia, kisses for her cheek. He got back into those manly half hug, half handshake things that guys share with Vince and later Leon and Jesse. But he took a long time to get back into being like that with me in front of other people. Of course, when he first got out, like any man who'd been without a woman's touch for two years he could hardly keep his hands off me at night, when we were alone. But it was still like it was ok to show love to one's sister, that didn't make you soft, but showing you loved your girlfriend made you somehow less of a man. And maybe to the guys in the jail it would have. But he wasn't in jail anymore, he was home with his family.  
  
It's only normal for prison to change a person. I know my jeuvie time make me tougher. I can't even say I didn't like the changes I saw in Dom's body. I mean, he was gorgeous before he went in but when he came out with all those muscles in all the right places I was even more proud he was mine. But the reason why he had to get big like that was so that he wouldn't be a victim in jail. It took awhile but things between us got almost back to normal and life was good for a while.  
  
Then the whole situation with the trucks happened. And everything changed again. And not for the better. We could have lived comfortably on what the store and garage made if we'd lived fairly simply and worked hard. And Dom was ok with living simple except when it came to his car. And then all our cars. So he came up with the idea that loaded trucks would be easy to hijack because all you needed was a way to get into the cab and someone who knew how to drive them. Then Vince admitted that he knew how. And then Dom and Vince found contacts to track down trucks that were good marks. And then Leon figured out how to get into the cab and Vince volunteered to be the one to make the jump.  
  
I'm looking inside myself and realizing now that maybe I am still mad at Dom for being the one who had to do the thing with the trucks. He dragged the rest of us in with him. And trips to mexico and the best of everything for the cars and not working such long hours sounded good to me too so I went along. But it was Dom's idea. Dom's the one who had to be tough shit with Tran and push him over the edge with Jesse. Maybe I had been sending the wrong message to Dom since the stuff with the trucks. Maybe he'd sensed my resentment over him not treating me like he use to and over everything falling apart over the stupid trucks. Over Jesse getting shot, V getting hurt, Mia getting her heart broken.  
  
Maybe things with us had changed to the point of needed a break. Or even a break-up. But then again I had a lot of history with Dom and surely that history was worth something. Surely we weren't going to lose it all over this situation after everything else we'd survived through?  
  
I sighed and realized while I'd been doing all that thinking I'd gotten all the vegetables chopped up and I was ready to start cooking the dinner. Brian came into the kitchen from his room.  
  
"Hey Letty?"  
  
"Yeah Bri?" I asked and rubbed at a stray tear on my face. I could always blame the onions after all.  
  
"Can I ask Rome down to dinner? He's always hungry and it's not often anyone cooks for us around here."  
  
"Sure Brian. There's lots of food. Go ahead and ask him. Just let me know so I can make enough rice and heat enough shells."  
  
"I'll call up there now." Brian left the kitchen, or excuse me, galley, whistling. He was happy at least. He was getting a home cooked meal he didn't have to make or buy. Actually, it felt good to cook for someone who'd appreciate it. It had been a long time since anyone needed me around home.  
  
We had Mia to cook and Dom to be in charge. Vince to keep us safe. Leon to keep the piece and be an electrical genius. Jesse to be an everything car and math related genius. Dom to race and fix the cars. No one really needed me anymore. Not toward the end. Not even Dom. At least Dom use to need me for companionship. We use to talk about our days. About what we'd done and what we planned to do. We had big plans.  
  
Brian came back into the galley, still whistling off tune. "He's on his way down. You should have heard how excited he was."  
  
"Why?" Why would anyone be excited over my so-so cooking?  
  
"Because if someone would feed him, he'd eat night and day. He'd never stop."  
  
"Why isn't he big as a house?"  
  
"Ask him. He tells it better then I do." Brian laughed and started to set his little table for three.  
  
Brian wasn't really happy here. I could see it if I looked. He looked older then he had in LA. I know, I know, he is older. But he didn't look older in a good way. I've watched my guys get older, don't forget. So I know what men look like as they grow up. Or in the case of Vince just add years to the total of their age, and Brian looked like the time since LA hadn't been as good to him as he'd let on. He looked tired around his eyes. He looked like someone had killed his puppy when he didn't think anyone was looking at him, when he let his guard down.  
  
Going home to LA is going to be good for Brian too. He obviously needs to confront a few things to get some peace of mind back. He was looking pretty sad right when he was setting his table for sure.  
  
"So how do you know Rome exactly?"  
  
"We went to school together. We grew up together in Barstow."  
  
"No shit! You're really from Cali? I didn't think you were from Arizona." I knew Brian had a Californian accent. One thing that bothered me about him solved.  
  
"Yep, I'm from the middle of no where, or the middle of the Mojave depending on how you look at it." Brian smiled at me and then continued. "Rome and I use to fight in the sand all the time. He was under house arrest for something he did right around the time I was in the academy. We had a big fight about him being a criminal and me still becoming a cop. I guess he thought that we should stick together. That since I knew he was doing things that were against the law I shouldn't become one of the people sworn to uphold it."  
  
"Did you turn him in or something Bri?" That would go against my assessment of Brian. If he couldn't turn in Dom, a man he liked and respected but hardly knew how could he turn in his childhood friend? Vince and Dom would never do that to each other.  
  
"No! I didn't even know what he was into. I found out he'd been busted after the fact. They caught him with a lot of rims that he hadn't paid for. He was chopping cars I guess. By the time I even knew it was to late. It's old news now."  
  
"But it's why you let Dom go isn't it?" I asked softly. He'd failed one friend, he hadn't been able to live with the thought of failing another one.  
  
"Part of it." Brian answered and was saved from elaborating further by the arrival of his friend.  
  
"Hey." Rome said as he walked in and sat down at the table, making it seem even smaller. He was quite a bit bigger then Brian. Well, Brian was taller. But Rome was almost as built as Dom. Plus he just had this energy, a presence. The same sort of gravity, almost, as Dom. His pull wasn't quite as strong but it did exist.  
  
"What can I do?" Brian asked me, looking around. I looked at him in shock. A man offering to help in the kitchen? Wow. But then again Brian always had had a thing for helping Mia cook and clean up around our place too.  
  
"Why don't you decide what you want to drink and put it on the table? This is almost done."  
  
"K. What do you want to drink Let?"  
  
"What else." I answered with a wink and Brian grabbed me a Corona. Rome laughed.  
  
"Not another person around the joint that drinks that donkey piss in a bottle."  
  
"Hey bro! You can have any brew you want. Long as it's a Corona." I retorted. Brian and I grinned at each other then laughed. It was good. Good to take one of Dom's lines and use it with someone who understood. And not feel shitty right after about the mention of Dom. It was becoming ok to talk about him without feeling like the sky was falling, or other then that coloured red instead of blue.  
  
"That was the best damn beer I'd ever had." Brian laughed out, clearly thinking back to the first Corona he'd ever had. The one Dom had pilfered for him.  
  
"Because it was a Corona or because it was Vince's?" I asked with a grin. Vince had been more livid over that stunt then I'd seen him in a long time. If he ever could have killed Dom it would have been over Dom giving his beer to 'the buster'.  
  
"A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B." Brian answered, bad boy smile fully in effect.  
  
"I'll bet." I grinned back.  
  
"Am I missing something here?" Rome asked, slight smile on his face just at the easy banter between Brian and I.  
  
"Yeah, I'll tell you about it while we eat." I told Rome and started piling food on the table. As soon as it was all on the table Rome went for the rice. "Ah, ah, ah. Since you went for the food first you haveta say grace." I smirked.  
  
"But." Rome tried to protest.  
  
"But nothing." Brian answered. "It's tradition. When a Toretto cooks the first person to reach in for the food says grace."  
  
"Aiight." Rome answered and thought for a moment. "Dear father.Good company, good food, good meat. Good golly let's eat. Amen." Rome finished, choking on his laughter and looked at me with mischief sparkling in his eyes.  
  
"Not bad. Not as good as Jesse, but not bad."  
  
"Ah, Jesse. The boy wonder. He's ok then?" Rome asked and it was clear that Brian had talked about some things to his best friend.  
  
"Yeah. He's fine."  
  
"So you were gonna tell me about how you ruined my boy here and got him onto drinking that disgusting beer."  
  
"You want I should tell the story Bri, or do you want to?" I started to scoop my dinner onto my plate before Rome and Brian ate it all. Rome was eating like a man who hadn't seen food in months. Or maybe years.  
  
"You tell it Let. You have a more unbiased take on it then me." Brian settled back in his chair with a fajita and started to eat while staring at me. Rome joined him.  
  
"Well, Brian here had been given the assignment of busting up a ring of people hijacking transfer trucks. He got briefed by his boss and they told him that it had to be street racers doing it. The immediately told him to go after Dominic."  
  
"Why Dominic? They already knew he was doing it or something?" Rome asked.  
  
"Naw, Dom just runs street racing in LA. They thought he was doing it but they knew even if he wasn't he knew who was or who could be. So they sent Brian to try and get into Dom's world. So he started coming around our café and almost courting my friend Mia. Mia is Dom's little sister and the one soft spot in his whole life other then his car." I laughed at the thought of Brian sitting at the little bar in 'Toretto's' eating that terrible tuna everyday. "And Brian came to our café every day. The feds had gotten him a job with Harry at 'The Racer's Edge', this parts store that all street racers shop in. Dom included. And so Brian would come around every day acting like a down on his luck racer who worked slinging parts for Harry. And every day he'd order a Tuna sandwich on white bread with no crusts." I looked at Rome and he was looking at Brian.  
  
"You're such a baby." Rome laughed. "You having some chick cut the crust off your sandwich."  
  
"Hey, it was smart." I answered on Brian's behalf. "Mia's got mothering instinct in spades. Anything Brian did that made him seem like he needed someone to take care of him would just start to endear him to Mia. And he always looked like he needed a keeper. His clothes all scruffy and his hair all messy. Mia was falling for him. She liked the look he had like he needed someone and the no crust thing made him seem younger then he was."  
  
"So there. I was just being a good detective. And Dom has a bigger soft spot for you then anything." Brian answered.  
  
"But then, Brian really was trying to pick Mia up, and my boy Vince wasn't overly impressed with it. He's loved Mia since we were all kids. We grew up together. Me'n Mia, Dom'n V. But Mia never liked him the way he liked her. But he still saw Brian as moving in on his girl. Brian and Vince got in a big fight in front of the store over Mia and Brian's constant lunch time presence. Vince called Brian some bad names and then Brian showed Vince he could fight enough to hold his own. Vince is considerably bigger then Brian. But Dom told Brian not to come around anymore in the interest of peace."  
  
"So how is it that he came to get to stick around?" Rome asked, genuinely interested. I took a big drink of my beer, watched Rome wince, ate some of my dinner and took another big drink before continuing.  
  
"I'll get there. That night Brian showed up at our races. Like I said Dom runs the show. If he says you don't race then you don't. Brian wanted to race Dom and beat him to try and earn Dom's respect. It would have worked. But Brian forgot to figure in the fact that Dom would also hate him for humiliating him in front of his whole crowd. But it didn't matter because Chumpy couldn't race to save his soul. He over shot the line before the race even started, he was depending on a computer to run his fuel map, tell him when to shift up, and when to dump his NOS. I mean, he expected to have time to fuck with a laptop during a race Dom was going to make good and sure only took a few seconds to complete." Brian had the good grace to blush about his ignorance the first night he showed up at races. "And Brian lost. But not by as much as he should have, and he beat out Edwin and Danny to come in second. Dom had just won Brian's car because Brian had raced for slips. No doubt thinking that the 60 g's or so the PD was into that eclipse for would make sure he bet Dom."  
  
"It was an 80 thousand dollar eclipse actually and I caught hell for what happened to it." Brian smirked.  
  
"Yeah, so you should have. It was a beautiful car. But anyway. He no doubt thought he would win and then he'd get Dom's respect for having won. But it didn't work out that way and Dom fully intended on taking the eclipse from Brian. But then Leon heard over the scanners that the cops were onto us and we had to split. We all got back to the house but for Dom. We didn't want to go looking for him because well, one, we'd all just escaped the cops and a huge fine, and two, we knew if the cops got Dom he was going to jail overnight because they all have it in for him anyway. But as I found out later Dom hadn't tried to get home, he'd stashed the car and started to walk away but a cop recognized him and when he called out for Dom to stop Dom ran. I think Dom hoped we'd all be out looking for him but no one was. No one but Brian. Brian picked him up, scared the shit out of him driving away from the cops and brought him home safe. Dom invited Brian in for a beer then gave us all shit about not going looking for him. Said some mean things to me, almost clocked Leon's date off the head with a beer bottle and then took Vince's beer and gave it to Brian here."  
  
"Yeah, then Vince almost kicked the shit out of me. If it wasn't for Mia Vince and Leon would have taken me out back and kicked my ass."  
  
"Only if you were lucky Brian. Vince would have just shot your ass and then shovelled and shut up."  
  
"Shit. And this is your friend?" Rome asked me.  
  
"Since we were in Junior high. I mean I knew him longer then that but we all got really tight in junior high."  
  
"How'd Brian come to be called Chumpy?" Rome asked me with a laugh.  
  
"That is another long story." I answered and looked at the table. I was stuffed and since all the food was gone it stood to reason that the guys were too. I'd made a lot of dinner and it was all gone. I hadn't even noticed the time pass while we'd talked. It had been a long time since I'd had a boisterous family dinner with anyone and I'd enjoyed entertaining Brian and Rome while we ate and carried on.  
  
"I got time." Rome answered. "And I'm hoping there's desert." I burst out laughing and so did Brian.  
  
"I can scare up ice cream sundae stuff." I answered with a giggle. "But I don't know where in the name of god almighty you're gonna put any more food."  
  
"I got a high metabolism." Rome answered.  
  
"I guess." I answered and went to get up to start to gather the chocolate, butterscotch, cherries and ice cream.  
  
"I'll get the stuff Let, you tell the story. You cooked. Rome and I'll clean." Rome went to protest but Brian shot him off a look warning him not to. He must have gotten it.  
  
"Yeah, Brian can start to clean while I gather up the stuff for the ice cream." Rome stood up with a groan. "Ok, maybe I'm more full then I knew." He laughed and I laughed with him as he rubbed his gut.  
  
"Do you still want the." I never finished my question because he went to the freezer. Yep he was still hungry for the ice cream. Damn he could eat.  
  
"So, chumpy. How'd that come about?"  
  
"Well, he owned Dom a 10 second car. Which is one reason. The fact that he lost that awesome eclipse. The supra he got him to replace it is the other. It was such a chumpy car when it arrived. It was all burned up and wasted. It was a chumpy car. So I guess the reason why I call him chumpy is he was a sucky racer who lost his awesome car and got a chumpy car to replace it. And the name just kinda stuck to him."  
  
"Yeah, it suits him." Rome laughed and Brian stared him down.  
  
"Shut up Rome."  
  
"Truth hurts eh Brian?" I asked sweetly.  
  
"And what does he call you?" Rome asked me.  
  
"Reina."  
  
"What's that mean, why's he call you that?"  
  
"Mean's Queen. That's what Brian said I was. The queen of racing."  
  
"And you sure you'n Brian don't want to be alone?" Rome smirked as he asked me.  
  
"All Brian and I have is friendship man. I was happy to see Mia happy and for that Brian was an alright kinda guy." Rome didn't have anything smart to say back to that. He just let it go. I was glad because I didn't have anything else to add to it that wouldn't hurt Brian's feelings.  
  
We made our deserts and ate them. We had a great time just laughing and talking for another few hours. 


	12. Not a Chick Flick!

Chapter 12 -Not a Chick Flick Chick!  
  
"Oh man, I can't remember when I laughed so hard!" I gasped out as Rome told another amusing story from his and Brian's childhood growing up in Barstow. We were just sitting around Brian's little table chatting. The dishes were long since washed and put away. By the guys I might add, even if Rome didn't look overly happy about it. He was one up on Dom already. Dom didn't clean.  
  
Brian looked embarrassed. A lot of Rome's stories proved that Brian was in fact deserving of the nickname Chumpy. He'd been a player even as a kid and he'd gotten into a lot of trouble over it.  
  
"Well, there was this one time that Rome got caught with this Tosha chick in his old Cutlass. He was."  
  
"Brian you need to shut that white mouth before I shut it for you!" Rome almost shouted to stop Brian from telling what manner of trouble Rome had gotten into with this Tosha in the back seat of his old car.  
  
It made me laugh even harder. They joined me. They were so funny together. The oldest of friends.  
  
Then it made me sad. They were Dom and Vince. The oldest of friends, they'd grown up together. They knew almost everything about each other. They'd had each other's backs in more fights then they could likely count. It worked no matter which set of friends you wanted to apply it to.  
  
I don't think that Brian would be flattered to be compared to Vince. He was like him in a lot of ways. Small ways, but significant.  
  
Vince and Brian would both rather take trouble down onto themselves then bring it home with them. Brian had gone down, in a way at least, for us rather then let us take the punishment for what we'd done.  
  
If it had come down to it Vince would have taken all the responsibility too, if we'd have let him.  
  
Both sort of suffered in silence rather then go on about their troubles.  
  
Both had the scruffy hairdo goin on, and it seemed to flatter them more then make them look like the dirty scruffs it should. I think it appeals to a certain kind of girl, a girl looking for someone to take care of. Both Brian and Vince look like they need someone. Someone to take care of them. And I think I've hit the nail on the head there anyway because they both do. Brian's got his woman in Mia. He just needs to see her again and realize that.  
  
And because she's been looking for a guy like him for a long time I think she'll take him back.  
  
If Dom doesn't kill him first for taking off on us and not coming back when the shit died down.  
  
Dom and Rome don't really compare, except for being tall, built and bald. They're like polar opposites. Dom's serious and controlled.  
  
Rome's funny. Not much is serious in his world. His emotions are closer to the surface too. More volatile. He's more outgoing with his emotions. I guess he just doesn't keep them under the iron lock that Dom does.  
  
I know Dom has his reasons but it gets really old to always be trying to force someone to tell you how they feel, force them to show some feeling. I felt like I was always pushing Dom toward some reaction. Just to know he felt something.  
  
He was always so mad at me after I forced him to get mad at me. It was the easiest emotion to force him to show. Anger. I knew just what buttons to push to make him explode. He was good at waiting till we were alone to do it though.  
  
In public I'd just get a terse 'Letty!' while he tried to warn me off and make me shut up. Then if I kept pushing I'd get dragged off to the nearest place with doors that locked so he could yell at me.  
  
Then I'd yell back and we'd have a big fight. Then satisfied that he did care, at least enough to get mad enough to yell at me for whatever I'd said I'd stop pushing and we'd have the wildest sex ever. That was just how it was. Maybe not healthy, but sure fun.  
  
"Hey Letty?" Brian broke into my thoughts, waving a hand in front of my face. "You in there?"  
  
"Yeah, just thinking. Sorry. What's up?"  
  
"Do we want to go up to Tej's and watch a movie with the rest of the crew?" Brian asked.  
  
I checked the clock. Only 9. I wasn't going to be able to go to bed for a while, after sleeping in as late as I had. I figured I may as well go start to get to know my new team. Even if they are only temporary.  
  
"Sure, why not."  
  
"Good. Let's go." Rome said and stood up.  
  
He stretched and I watched the play of muscles under the open shirt he was wearing. It was very intriguing. He was a very nice looking boy.  
  
Despite what Mia had told me I still felt like I shouldn't be noticing just how nice looking Rome was. I felt like an old married lady. Guilty for noticing the young hot guy when my much loved but terribly familiar husband was waiting at home.  
  
But who knew if he was even waiting.  
  
I slid my feet into my sandals and followed Rome and Brian out of the boat. Rome stood on the dock and offered his hand to me to help me off the boat. I took it with a shy smile. Man this guy makes me feel things I haven't felt in a while. Like shy for one. Like I'm the lady not the tramp for another.  
  
We walked into Tej's and sat down. I sat in an oversized chair off to one side, pulling my feet up under me. There I go again, trying to be small and inconspicus. I feel a moment or two of pity for the rest of this team. Someday the shyness and sense of being an outsider will fade, then they'll be stuck with loud mouth, bitchy Letty. I bet it shocks the shit out of them. Letty on my best behaviour is very different from Letty how I normally am.  
  
Rome and Jimmy went to make popcorn and Suki went to put in a DVD.  
  
"What are you putting on Suk?" Tej asked her from his seat on a leather couch.  
  
They were livin pretty large. Nice home theatre system and leather furniture. Nothing hand me down in this crib. Not like home. We still have all Dom's father's furniture. The TV is almost as old as I am. All the money goes into our cars. Either they win more here or being mechanics pays better here. Of course, Tej seems like some sort of gambling mob boss.  
  
"Uptown Girls." Suki answered.  
  
"Oh hell no!" Jimmy yelled back from the kitchen.  
  
"You gotta be kidden me!" Tej exclaimed at her too.  
  
"No freaken way!" Brian added his opinion.  
  
I didn't want to see that movie either but I didn't want to say anything. All that came to mind was chick flick.  
  
I've never been big on 'chick flick' style movies. I like action. I want to see shit blow up. I like fast cars and big stunts and stuff blowing up or getting shot.  
  
I've gotten stuck watching more sappy movies with Mia then I care to count. She'd like Suki. They could go shopping and do their hair together then watch stupid girl movies all night. I don't want to watch Uptown Girls at all.  
  
One, it looked like a stupid movie to me. Two, it'll remind me of doing girly shit with Mia. I don't want to think about it right now. Much as I outwardly let on I hate all that stuff, doing it with Mia was special. I don't know if I'm scared I could learn to like Suki on the same level as I liked Mia, or if I just really hate chick flicks and I only put up with them out of love for Mia. I'm gonna hope for the later because I really don't think I like Suki.  
  
"Either play Underworld or The Italian Job." Brian told Suki.  
  
"But I want to watch this movie." Suki pouted at the room in general.  
  
"Let's let the newest member of the group decide. She's still kinda like a guest, for now." Rome said from the door with a wink for me. He was standing there, holding a big bowl of popcorn. "What do you want to watch?"  
  
"Um." I wasn't happy to be put on the spot. I didn't want to piss anyone off. Of course in this case the only one likely to be pissed off was Suki. So fuck it. "I'd like to see 'The Italian Job'. I never got to see that one yet." I answered back.  
  
"Woowhoo!" The guys all called out together.  
  
"Go Letty. It's your birthday." Jimmy sing songed, happy to not have to watch the chick flick.  
  
"Good choice girl." Tej nodded my way.  
  
Rome just smiled, like he had me pegged anyway and he knew if he let me chose he'd never have to watch 'Uptown Girls' anyway. That's not really a tough call to make. It's gotta be pretty obvious that I'm not a girly girl anyway.  
  
Suki shot me a dirty look.  
  
"Sorry but I just never been much of a chick flick chick." I told them all with a smile.  
  
"Thank God." Tej said, mock look of relief on his face. "One girly girl is all I can handle around the place." We all laughed.  
  
"It's enough to have one." I answered, still laughing, thinking of Mia.  
  
Everyone looked at me speculatively, wondering what I was talking about. Everyone but Brian. It was clear from the reflective look on his face he knew who I meant and he was thinking of her. Good, that's a good thing.  
  
"How do you know that so certainly?" Jimmy asked me, smiling openly.  
  
He's a good kid. I can tell already. Sort of like Jesse but without the ADD induced lack of concentration.  
  
"Well, where I'm from, on my team back home, my best friend is the ultimate girly girl. If I was too it would push us over the limit of girly behaviour allowed in any one house by law. We're the exact opposites of each other, me'n M.My girl." We all laughed at that and Suki reluctantly put in the movie we'd all agreed on.  
  
Rome came fully into the room with the popcorn and after a split second of thought he decided to sit on the floor in front of my chair, leaning against the front of it. He offered me the popcorn bowl and I took a handful.  
  
Brian shot Rome a look I didn't want to know the meaning of. I could tell Brian was still not impressed with the attention his friend was giving me and I figured Brian would have something to say about it to me since saying stuff to Rome didn't seem to do much for him.  
  
I wonder why Brian would even care. It's not like Rome could ever hurt me worse then Dom has. Besides, I don't want to get with Rome. Right?  
  
I'm not sure of the answer to that question myself. I'm not going to rush things, but I have a lot to think about. 


	13. Team Dynamics

Chapter 13 – Team Dynamics  
  
After 'The Italian Job' was over everyone stretched and looked around at each other. Rome and Brian shared a look that, coming from Brian's end seemed to be rather pointed. I couldn't see what sort of expression Rome had on his face from where I was sitting but whatever it was it didn't seem to make Brian happy at all.  
  
"You ever think what it would be like to pull that kind of a job?" Jimmy asked the room in general, referring to the heist in the movie.  
  
I made a mental note to ask Brian how much about my 'extracuricular activities' he's told his friends. Do they know that me and my boyfriend and three of our best friends should be in jail right now for doing something kinda like what they just saw in that movie? Thinking they do makes me both uncomfortable and  
  
"The money's right." Suki laughed.  
  
"We have the driving skill." Tej added.  
  
"We could build the cars." Jimmy looked thoughtful.  
  
"I could find the mark." Rome boasted.  
  
"It's just a movie. In reality the criminals get caught. Or worse." Brian said and then it was his turn to share a deep look with me. "Besides, it would never work out that smooth. Not even if you thought you planned everything. Something would go wrong."  
  
"Yeah, crime doesn't pay." I laughed to try and relieve some of the tension. "Unless your crime of choice is street racing and you're as good at it as I am. Then it pays tons."  
  
Suki looked like she was about to challenge my assertion that I was that damn good at racing and Rome snorted the mouthful of coke he'd just tried to swallow out his nose. Brian grinned.  
  
"Yeah, I wanna get you racing real challengers instead of Diego to see what you can really do." Tej smirked at me as he made this statement. "Brian's been telling tales of 'what his Reina can do' and he has me really wanting to see you race the big time."  
  
"Why? That Diego dude just a poser?" I'd been happy to beat him. Plus people'd told me before we ran together that the guy I was racing was good. I didn't want anyone to take any part of my win away from me. But it would if they told me he wasn't good, just a loudmouth with more car then brains  
  
"No girl, he's the real deal, but he's far from the best." Jimmy added his opinion.  
  
"Puto has more money then brains and says he hates to run against 'skirts'. He's an asqueroso!" Suki huffed to the floor after her outburst.  
  
Everyone stared at her, then glanced at me. I shrugged my shoulders.  
  
"I said he's a man whore with more money then brains who doesn't like to race girls. He's an asshole." Suki sighed.  
  
I don't want them to know I'm fluently Spanish. I'd taught V some Spanish swear words for fun but I was the only one on our team in LA that really spoke Spanish. It was what I'd grown up speaking at home. My mother hardly spoke English and when she was high as a kite what English she had known had flown right out of her brain.  
  
Why am I keeping that from them you ask? Because I think the little puta will try to say something rude to me or about me in Spanish some day and that's when I'll let on I speak it too. It'll be sweet. And if the day never comes so be it. Don't know why I don't like this girl. Just know I don't.  
  
Of course Brian knows about the fact I'm able to speak Spanish as well as I do English, but I'm betting he won't tell anyone if I don't want him to.  
  
"I want to see you in a real race, you know, you and two or three other people with corners and stuff. None of this quarter mile straight crap you're use to. Anyone can win at that shit." Tej explained.  
  
"If anyone can win at that shit then you won't mind giving me a chance at you someday in the quarter mile huh? After all, I'm sure you could win." It was my turn to smirk. Racing a circuit instead of a quarter mile was harder, but I could still kick ass at it.  
  
"I don't race anymore. I hit a wall doin a buck twenty and I just let you fools run and let even bigger fools wager on who'll win. I got no plans on racing you in any kind of race."  
  
I just nodded to show I understood. It's hard to get your groove back after a wreck. I mean what they say about get right back on the horse is really true, you really should just get right back in the driver's seat and go again. The catch is you've just wrecked your car so it's kinda hard to just take off for a wild ride.  
  
Leon mangled the skyline pretty good once. It took him a while to get back into racing but he did. I knew how sensitive Leon was about it so I decided to just let the topic go and change the subject.  
  
"So when do you all race around here? Is it like every Saturday or just when the word gets out, or what?" I was curious how many chances I'd get to race. I hadn't been getting enough back home and if I could change that here the more the better.  
  
"Mostly it's every Friday and Saturday from 1am to 3am." Tej answered.  
  
Wow, that's organized. Two nights a week with set times. Back home we all meet around 1ish and then see how it goes. Mostly Saturday but sometimes other nights too. We have to keep the cops guessing. I wonder how they get around that here. Tej has time frames set for racing. They almost take their racing more seriously around here I think. Of course they likely don't have a Dom, winning every race he's in and making other people not want to bother.  
  
Well, lots of people still step up to race Dom but a lot more don't bother anymore. Wonder if there's anyone like that around here.  
  
"So, is there any one person around here that's 'the one' to beat?" I asked the group in general. They all looked around at each other then at me, like they weren't sure if they should answer that question. They all looked like that but Suki, who looked indignant about something.  
  
"Yeah, it's Brian. That's what I was trying to tell you." Suki rolled her eyes at me.  
  
"Brian? Brian is the guy that everyone wants to beat and no one can?" I asked them disbelievingly. I could believe Brian was good. In a skyline I could believe Brian was really good. But I had a very hard time believing that Brian was 'that guy'. I mean, Dom kicked his ass over and over again. Dom had to teach him to race.  
  
Brian looked up at me with a sheepish look. It was like he knew what I was thinking.  
  
"I'm a fast learner."  
  
"Chumpy, some times you manage to shock me." I gave him a big smile.  
  
I'll be taking that title away from him, but I should be able to do it without ever really racing Brian. I'll just race everyone else there is to race and beat them. Then I'll be the one to beat. But I'll race Brian if I have to. 


	14. Racer Girl Barbie

Chapter 14 – Racer Girl Barbie  
  
Brian and I left not too long after we had the talk about how easy the money was for criminals. We were walking back to his boat together and I decided I had to know what his team knew about me'n Dom and what we'd done before I got to know them any better.  
  
"Um, Bri?"  
  
"Yeah Let."  
  
"How much does your team know about me and what went on while you were with me in L.A.?" I asked and my nervousness showed in my tone.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, do they know how you know me? Do they know that we're the reason why you're not a cop anymore? Do they know what Dom and Vince were doing? I mean, are they looking at me like I'm some criminal who's team is responsible for Bullit not being a cop anymore?" Do they look down at me for being a petty crook? I wanted to ask it but I couldn't get the words out and I figured that my meaning was pretty clear just in how I'd asked.  
  
"They know I know you from LA. They don't know just why I do. They do know you are Dom's girlfriend and they do know that Dom is the guy who was behind the thing that made me not want to be a cop anymore. They do not know your exact roll in the whole thing and they will not look down at you for anything. Oh, and for the record, I was offered a job with the police again after Rome and I brought down Verone. I turned it down. I don't want to be a cop anymore."  
  
"Why not?" I asked. Brian seemed like an ideal cop type. He was mostly honest, a hard worker, an analytical thinker, and smart. He knew how to calm people down, make them trust him, and he was good at getting information out of people. Even if it was information they didn't want to give.  
  
"It's just not for me anymore. At least, detective work isn't. What happened with you all taught me that life and people aren't as cut and dry as the police force would have you think. I mean, yeah, I know you guys were breaking the law. But then again you aren't bad people. You're good people who were doing a bad thing. But Dom had his reasons to want to as well. Maybe he shouldn't have done it no matter what but he felt he had to. He was so caught up in the fact that he had to take care of you and Mia and keep the house and the store and the garage up that he thought he had to do something to make the money. And even if he went about it in a stupid way, that's an admirable sentiment."  
  
"Don't forget he did it for his stupid car. He had to have the best of everything for his stupid car and he couldn't afford it if he took care of all of us and the store. I don't want to make you think less of the great Dom Toretto but we could have survived on what we made in the store and the garage when you consider Dom and the rest of us did ok at racing."  
  
"Letty. I know you aren't trying to tell me you think Dom's car is more important to him then you and Mia?" Brian clearly couldn't believe I would think that, let alone that it could be true.  
  
"I know the car's not more important to him then Mia. Mia's the love of his life. Me on the other hand..." I trailed off.  
  
"Letty, I know you're pissed at him right now but he loves you more then he loves his car." Brian tried to reassure me about Dom's affection as we walked onto the boat.  
  
I wasn't buying it but I didn't want to fight about it any more either. I decided to let it drop. I was just about to tell Brian I was going to bed when his cell rang. And not the cell he used every day. THE cell. The one he gave me to call home. We shared a look.  
  
"Does anyone have that number?" I asked him, worried.  
  
"Not that I know of. It's likely a wrong number." Brian answered and picked up the phone.  
  
"Maybe you should just let it ring." I told him.  
  
"It's a wrong number or it's the FBI. It'll be fine." Brian told me then answered his cell with a curt 'hello'.  
  
There's a sentence for you. Hey Letty, it's fine. If it's not a wrong number it's just the FBI. Hello Brian, I'm Letty, the girl who was hijacking transfer trucks. Yeah, the FBI is my fucken best friend! The fact that it could be the FBI was not the most reassuring thing that he could have told me.  
  
"Um, yeah, she's here. Just a second while I find her." Brian used his hand to cover the mouthpiece of the phone. "It's Vince. I don't know how in the hell he got the number but I'll be getting a new phone soon I'll tell you that. He didn't know who I was, I don't think. He didn't flip and I'd think he would if he recognized my voice. You wanna talk to him or should I tell him I couldn't find you?"  
  
Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. It was all I could think. How in the blue hell did Vince get the untraceable number?  
  
"I thought you said the number wasn't traceable." I hissed at Brian.  
  
"It wasn't supposed to be able to be. It was supposed to show unknown and be totally untraceable. I'll have to call my boss at the FBI and find out what's up. But if you talk to him we can change the phone tomorrow. It's not like he'll know where you are from getting the number. The phone's activated out of Minnesota. He doesn't even know the right area code for where you are from the number."  
  
"Ok, give it here." I took the phone from him. "Hello." I said as I put the phone to my ear.  
  
"Letty."  
  
"Vince how'd you get this number?" I sounded pissed. And I was. But I was scared too. I was glad it was pissed that came across. "I thought you weren't going to dig if I promised to call you every once in a while."  
  
"It's not digging if it shows up on call display Letty. Where the hell is that area code from anyway? Jesse says Minnesota. Why would you go to Minnesota?"  
  
Thank god he thought I was in Minnesota.  
  
"Why not?" I asked, neither confirming nor denying his suspicions.  
  
"What's there for you to do? Leon says you're working in a garage. Doesn't it suck to work in a garage in winter in a place where it snows? And you shouldn't be driving the 240 in the snow. It'll rust out."  
  
Vince sounded like he was panicking more about me running the car in a place with snow and salt then he was about me turning up missing. And I can't have him running around Minnesota looking for me after all.  
  
"Vince I'm not in Minnesota ok. I got the phone activated out of another state to hide my whereabouts." I sighed. I wanted to let him think I was in Minnesota but he was just the kind of thick skulled, bull headed man to take it upon himself to 'come visit' to check out my employer and make sure he was on the up and up and to make sure that I was living in accommodations he found suitable.  
  
"Ok. Is everything ok?"  
  
"As ok as it was when I talked to you this afternoon." I sighed.  
  
"Um good. Cause, um..." Vince clearly didn't want to say what he felt he had to say to me.  
  
"What is it Vince. I'm about to go to bed here. It's been a long ass day and I'd like it to end some time soon."  
  
"Dom wants to talk to you. He's standing here staring at me. He says there are some things he wants to say to you. Will you talk to him?"  
  
Will I talk to him? Really don't want to. The pain of what he did is still too fresh. It's only been 4 days since he broke my heart. But I'm going to have to talk to him eventually. It may as well be now. If I can just keep my voice level. Just make him think I'm fine. That I'm doing ok without him. That I don't miss him. That I haven't been finding out first hand how much it sucks to have nightmares. Then I'll be fine.  
  
"Fine." I made myself sound irritated. "Put him on."  
  
"Thank you Let." Vince breathed out. He had clearly been dreading telling Dominic that I wouldn't speak to him.  
  
"Whateva, just put Dom on."  
  
"Hello?" Dom sounded uncertain, like it might not be me.  
  
"Hi Dom. What do ya want?" I asked. I sounded too pissed at him to please myself. I'd wanted to just sound indifferent.  
  
"I just want to make sure you're ok." He told me.  
  
Yeah, I'm fine. He made me lose my family, friends, job and pretty much everything else that was ever important to me other then my car. I'm fucken super! But that's me, the sarcastic bitch.  
  
"I'm just great Dom! You broke up with me, told me all sorts of shit and made me have to leave my home. I'm fucken super!" Hey it's a good line. I may as well use it on him. Can't let all that yummy sarcasm go to waste in my own head after all.  
  
Brian was watching me talk with a sort of horrified humour. Like he found the whole situation horrible but still funny. Then he must have realized I might want to have this one out alone and left the room for his own bedroom.  
  
"Letty. It wasn't what I had in mind and you know it. Come home. It'll all work out. I...The team misses you." Dom sighed.  
  
If he can't even admit he misses me, if it has to be 'the team' then how can he say he's ready to have me back? He can't be. Not if he can't admit to something as simple as how much he needs me and how he misses me.  
  
"Really. You figure any of your shit out yet Dominic? Or are you just catching hell from Mia and V and trying to make your life easier?"  
  
Cruel, but true. Why should I go easy on him now? I didn't even want to talk to him. I didn't want them to have a way to call me. The day that had been going so well was rapidly going to hell at its finish.  
  
"It's not that Letty. And no, I still have shit to work out. But I do wish you'd come home. How'm I supposed to work out anything if I'm worrying about you all the time and I don't know where you are or if someone's mistreating you and shit?"  
  
"I'm fine Dom. And I'ma be fine. I'm working, I'm racing, I'm winning and I've already made some friends. I'll keep being fine and doing ok till you tell me you're feeling better or I decide that I want to come home anyway. That's the end of the story right there. I have some shit to work out too."  
  
And if I looked deep into myself it was true. I was fine. And I would keep being fine. I might get sad. I might miss the team. I might miss Dom. But I was going to be fine. And that was a good thing. And I did have some stuff to work through too.  
  
"You're racing?" Dom jumped on that one.  
  
"Yes. I am racing. It turns out that an s14 Silvia with a full HKS exhaust, turbos, NOS, Sparcos, and Toyo tires just to name a few is a car that is meant to be raced Dom. Contrary to what you seemed to think it's not for me to lean against and look good standing there. It's for me to drive and kick ass. So I'm finally using it for the purpose I build it for."  
  
"Letty. It's too dangerous. You shouldn't be street racing!" He almost yelled at me. "I'm not there and..." He trailed off. I bet the sentence would have ended like you're not smart enough to decide what races to take on and how to win them.  
  
"Guess what Dom. I won a car on my first race here ok. I don't need you to pick people for me to race. I don't need you to decide what's safe for me to do or not. I'm an adult and you gave up any right you had to run my life when you broke up with me!"  
  
God it felt good to yell at him about that. It was about time he figured it out, even if I did have to spell it out for him, that it pissed me off when he treated me like Racer Girl Barbie. A person who's sole purpose in life was to stand around wearing tight clothes some one else dressed me in and looked good with my 36 inch boobs and 24 inch waist and 36 inch hips hoping that Racer Boy Ken would throw a bone of affection my way. And maybe, just maybe, if I was a good little ornament he might let me race the occasional race.  
  
I am not a Barbie. I'm not made of plastic. The sum off all my feelings is not 'hope Ken likes this outfit'. I'm me. I'm strong. I'm passionate. Hell, I'm a Latina. I'm passionate in the extreme. The only person who can come close is Mia. And the Italians are pretty passionate too.  
  
Dom sputtered on the other end of the phone.  
  
"I didn't break up with you. I wanted to take a break. You broke up with me."  
  
"I bet you use that line all the time don't you Dom. Bet it makes all the skanks soooo very sorry for you huh. Big bad Letty broke up with me when all I wanted was to take a break from boring old her so that I could get with you fine ladies who only want to fuck me, not have me make some commitment to them. And then I bet they fall over each other to kneel at your" I cleared my throat. "feet and beg you to be the one you allow the privilege of comforting you in this trying time of not having a girlfriend to warm your bed."  
  
I was screaming at him and I didn't care if Brian could hear and I'd stopped caring if I let Dom know how pissed I was at him still either. I continued before he could get a word in.  
  
"You are so selfish you know that? You needed your space to figure your shit out. You needed the money from races so I never could. You couldn't keep it in your pants. You had to get more money. You had to fight Johnny Tran. You had to have sex with his sister. You give that stupid little speech about how you live your life a quarter mile at a time and nothing else matters because for that 10 seconds or whatever you're free. Do you even know how selfish that sounds? All of us giving our whole effort to run your store and be your team and work in your garage and you go around telling people that none of it matters as long as you get your high from a fucken quarter mile race. Guess what Dom? There's more to life then chasing some 10 second adrenaline high and it's time you figured that out!"  
  
I heard Brian snort from his room, likely about how stupid the fucken 10 second at a time speech really was.  
  
And it was a noble sentiment in one way. To live one's life one piece at a time. Take it one quarter at a time, do your best and move on to the next. I lived my life like that. Taking it one day at a time, doing my best for that day then moving on to the next to try and do my best for another day.  
  
But Dom's speech wasn't about doing his best and moving on to try and do better. It was about using each race as a quarter mile break from everyone else in his life. Like we were such a burden to him that he really needed the break from us.  
  
Well, let me tell you, carrying the king of the L.A. streets around is more of a burden on us as his team then we'll ever be to him. Poor Vince was the only one with the balls to stand up to him and tell him like it was instead of how it wouldn't make him mad. And even Vince didn't want to push his buttons half the time. I didn't care. He'd driven me beyond caring. And besides that, he had no idea where I was.  
  
"I know there's more to my life then racing Letty. I know how stupid that speech sounded and I'm so fucken sorry for all the other stuff too. But you weren't totally innocent either you know. Nothing I ever did was good enough after you found out about Sakura Tran."  
  
"That's not true and you know it! If it had stopped after Sakura then I could have dealt. But it happened so many more times."  
  
"Well, half the time you accused me of cheating on you right afterward I hadn't so I guess since you were going to fucken convict me of doing it I figured I may as well actually have done something to be yelled at over." Dom yelled back.  
  
We were on opposite sides of the country and I was still pushing his buttons into showing me some sort of reaction. As it was, is, and ever shall be I guess. Damn Van and Mia and all their dragging me to Catholic church.  
  
"There's logic for you Dom. Since she already caught me and doesn't trust me why don't I go ahead and do it a few more times? Even Vince knows that's stupid reasoning and goes against logic." I was still talking in raised tones and I knew my slight on his intelligence would not go unnoticed. Again, Vince is not stupid. But he can be kinda thick. Especially about girls. So I know me telling Dom that Vince could have figured something about girls out but Dom himself can't is going to piss him off.  
  
I heard Brian laugh at that statement and then try to cover it with a cough. I couldn't blame him for listening. I was practically screaming at Dominic after all. But I couldn't just let him get away with laughing at something that had me so upset either. But it was kind of funny to think of Mr. Casanova himself, Dominic Toretto, having girl problems that Mr. Coyote would not.  
  
"It's not funny B!" I yelled in the direction of his door even as I laughed with him. Thank god I didn't say Brian instead of B.  
  
"Wait a second. Who's B?" Dom asked, anger leaving his voice as he went into deathly calm mode. Uh oh!  
  
"No one."  
  
"Must be someone. He's close enough to hear your conversation so I assume he's in the same house as you." Dom sounded so calm I knew it was a deception. He was pissed as hell I was with another man.  
  
"How do you know it's a man? I just said the first letter of a name. It could be anyone."  
  
"Well, is it a girl or a guy?"  
  
Who the fuck died and made it any of his business? He wanted a break. And it's semantics who broke up with who at this point. Either way he wanted his space. But did I want to point out the fact it was none of his business or did I want to rub it in that it was a guy?  
  
"It's a man. I couldn't get my own place right away so I have a roomie." I answered, knowing it was the answer that would infuriate him the most.  
  
"Where the fuck are you Letty? I'm coming to take you home." He growled at me.  
  
Oh no he wasn't. Clearly he wasn't ready to have me back in his life yet or he'd know that I'm not a possession he can order around. I'm not a toy he can have that stays in its proper place till he wants to take it out. Not a toy he can put away in a closet when he wasn't using me. I was free for the first time since I was 16 and I was going to enjoy it.  
  
"I don't care to tell you Dominic. You know what? For the next while when I'm living without you running my life I'm free. When you realize I'm not your possession or your toy and you want me in your life because you love me and I add something to your life then you give me call. Till then I don't want to hear from you. Understand?" And without waiting for his answer I hit the end button on the cell phone, then the power button in case he tried to call me right back.  
  
And then I slid down the kitchen counter to sit on the floor and started to sob. 


	15. The aftermath

Chapter 15 – The Aftermath  
  
Brian came running when he heard me crying. He's a really nice guy. I mean that. He gets confused sort of easy but other then that he's pretty nice.  
  
"Ah Letty. Don't cry. It's gonna be fine." Brian sat beside me and put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to his side.  
  
I'm not happy with myself for being so weak about this whole thing but lord help me I wrapped my arms around his neck and grabbed him back as I sobbed.  
  
"He never loved me Bri." I wailed. "He was always just using me."  
  
"Letty that's not true. I saw how he acted around you. He was always looking out for you, watching to make sure you were ok. He loves you. He bothered to call you didn't he."  
  
"Yeah, to yell at me." I sniffled and looked up at Brian. I guess I knew Dom had loved me at one point but it sure didn't feel like he did right at that moment. And I really wondered to myself if he had in the last long time. I know he did when I was 16 and he bought me my car.  
  
Back when things were simpler.  
  
Back when his father was still alive.  
  
I don't know when things started to go south but they did and I just don't personally think that Dom has really loved me for a long time.  
  
Ok, and that's not totally fair either. He really loves me but I don't think he's been in love with me for a long time. If he had he wouldn't have hurt me the way he has for the last year or so.  
  
"To be worried about you. He called because he was worried about you. What did he say?" Brian asked gently.  
  
"He wanted to know if I was ok. Then when he found out I was racing he flipped out. He says I shouldn't be doing it without him around."  
  
"See, he's worried about you."  
  
"No he's not. He thinks I'm not smart enough to know if I should race some guy or not without his help to figure if I can beat the guy or not. And you know what? I'm not him. I don't have to win every race. I might, because I'm really good. But you'd never know that from how Dom treats me when it comes to racing. I'm not the one who thinks the world would end if I lost a race or two."  
  
"But it is dangerous Letty. See, he's just worried about you. He loves you."  
  
"When did loving someone become trying to run their life and tell them what to do for every aspect of it? He's fine with me being around races as long as I act like Racer Chaser Barbie and just stand against my car and look good. If I want to really race he's always got a reason why I can't."  
  
Brian sighed.  
  
"Maybe because he wants to keep you safe and not see you be disappointed if you lose."  
  
"I'm a big girl Brian. I don't need him to keep me safe. And he sees me disappointed all the time when his sorry ass does something else stupid."  
  
"No, you don't need anyone to keep you safe, I know that. And you're proving that to him now. Give it time Letty. You know what they say about not knowing what you had till it's gone. It won't be long now till Dom realizes the mistakes he's made have driven you away and he'll tell you he's sorry."  
  
"He's said he's sorry so many times. It's just that I don't feel he really means it. It's just lip service to me so that I'll leave him alone. If he could just really mean it Brian, I think everything would be ok if he ever told me he was sorry and meant it."  
  
"The day is coming. He's gonna realize what he lost when you walked out of his life Letty. Plus he seemed worried about you when he found out you were living with a guy."  
  
"He seemed jealous is what he seemed."  
  
"Well, guys don't get jealous unless they really don't want to share what they're jealous over. If he really didn't care about you he'd never get jealous over you living with another guy. He'd just be happy you had someone watching over you."  
  
"You think?" I asked hopefully. That would be a light at the end of the tunnel. A small little light, but a light none the less.  
  
"For sure. I've dated girls I didn't really feel for and when they all got smart and dumped my ass for other guys I never felt a minute of jealousy."  
  
Brian's eyes got sad.  
  
"But ever since I left L.A. every time I thought of Mia and wondered if she'd found someone else I got so jealous."  
  
Brian looked down at me, meeting me eyes.  
  
"See, I really care about her so the thought of her with another guy kills me every time I think about it. I wonder if she's moved on, maybe she fell for Vince. You know how she loves to take care of people and he'd surely need someone to take care of him after his accident. Or maybe some other blonde idiot walked into that silly little café and sat down with his car magazine and ordered her tuna sandwich with no crusts and she decided he needed someone. It bugs the hell out of me Lett. And that is why I know I still love her. If Dom's jealous of you over some guy he doesn't even know then he still loves you Letty. I couldn't care less if Monica is dating 10 other guys. I mean, I hope she's happy but I'm sure not jealous of her finding a new man."  
  
Yay! Brian still loves Mia. I was fairly sure but not totally. But now I know for sure. It's a great weight off my shoulders.  
  
"Mia never so much as dated another guy since everything happened. So I think when I'm ready to go back it'll be a good thing for you to Bri. You sound almost like a bitter old woman." I laughed and it felt good.  
  
"Bitter old woman?" Brian asked then laughed too. It was nice.  
  
And the more we thought about it the more we laughed. We laughed till tears ran down our faces and then we laughed some more. I think the two of us realized silly both of us had been acting and how bitter we both really were.  
  
"Oh Brian. It's good to get that stuff out in the open. And thanks for trying to make me feel better."  
  
"Thanks for listening to me blabber on my bitter way and thanks for trying to make me feel better too."  
  
"You're welcome. I'm going to bed." I stood up and offered a hand to Brian to help him up.  
  
"That sounds good. So, you and Rome are going exploring Miami tomorrow huh?"  
  
Brian took my hand and stood.  
  
"I guess so, if he still wants to take me."  
  
"Rome, want to take a pretty girl out in Miami alone in his convertible? Never. Letty, if you forgot he'd be down here to remind you pretty quick."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"He's just the good time guy. He likes doing stuff like that."  
  
I nodded. Sounded like just the tour guide I needed.  
  
"Letty?"  
  
"Yeah Bri?"  
  
"Just be careful ok?"  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Well, I know you're mad at Dom for acting like an ass, and I know that you're looking to have a good time and forget about some stuff, but I don't want to see you get hurt. I just want you to think about what you want sort of long term." He sighed, like he was scared I was going to be mad.  
  
I pulled a chair out at the table for him and gestured for him to sit down, going to bed forgotten for the moment. I think Brian and I had to talk about the Rome situation because it was clearly on Brian's mind.  
  
"Sit down Brian. I guess I've known this is bothering you for a while now so we may as well talk about it now."  
  
With a look my way Brian sat.  
  
"What's bothering you Brian?"  
  
"It's just that you know if Dom finds out you saw another guy seriously while you were gone he's gonna flip out."  
  
"Maybe but he did also pretty much give away his right to say much about it when he told me we were on a break."  
  
"But he's not gonna see it that way."  
  
"His problem."  
  
Brian nodded I was correct then continued.  
  
"Plus Rome is the good time guy. I just don't want to see you fall for him and then find out the hard way he's not looking for a long term commitment. He's always been the guy who just dates. He's really not the girlfriend type."  
  
"But I'm not looking for a new boyfriend, remember? I'm just looking for a few good times."  
  
"I know you say that Letty but the thing is he's about as different from Dom as you could get. What if you fall for his easy going attitude and the fact that he doesn't care what you do? Then he moves on to another girl, like he likely will and you're left without a boyfriend again. I know I'm not good at saying this stuff but I just don't want to see him hurt you because he thinks your fair game. Like he figures your just playing at being single for awhile and you're going to go running back to Dom someday so he can just flirt and play with you for now because there's no chance of it going anywhere."  
  
"But I'm not looking for a boyfriend and I figure I will go back to L.A. someday. Whether I get back with Dom or not is anyone's guess but I'm not going to fall head over heals in love with Rome Brian. He's not really my type anyway. I just think he's fun and nice and since he offered to show me around I'm going to let him. I promise I'll keep in mind that nothing about Miami is permanent ok?"  
  
"Ok. I forget how together you have it sometimes Reina. I never met another girl who's got herself as together as you."  
  
"How do you figure?"  
  
I'm the together one? The one who was just sobbing on his kitchen floor. That's his idea of together? Damn.  
  
"You kept the garage running. You think I didn't see how if it wasn't for you Dom would just get into making race cars. You're the one who thought of costs and volumes and stuff. I saw that. You and Mia. But when it came to the garage it was mostly you. You know yourself so well. You know what you want out of life. Sometimes getting it is hard but you still know what it is you want. You're confident and you know yourself pretty well too."  
  
"Yeah I was running the garage a lot, but I was also mad at Dom half the time, yelled at him about just talking to other girls in front of a whole crowd of people, and well, I tend to be a very angry person. Not totally my idea of together."  
  
"Yeah, you can be that way. Kinda angry. But it's not like you don't have reasons. Maybe when you go back you'll have figured out a way around that."  
  
"You're right, maybe it's time I stopped making excuses for why I'm angry so I can just stay angry and looked at why I feel that way all the time and worked on a solution."  
  
"That's probably true Letty. But for that to happen you need to go home and face up to Dominic."  
  
"Yeah I do. And I will. Just not right away. I think I have some growing up to do first. I can see that I do need to go have it out with him once and for all to his face and hope when the dust settles we can build a relationship where we're equals instead of me being second to him. I mean, I really became dependant on him and Vince too and I think I need to learn to take care of myself for a while. Not to mention how dependant on Mia I was. How dependant she was on me. She's the one I really worry about."  
  
"Why?" Brian asked.  
  
I watched as he stood up and started to pace.  
  
"Is something wrong with her?" He asked as he turned to face me.  
  
"She's always been the fragile one Bri. Never been as strong as the rest of us. That's one of the reasons why Vince didn't want to see you around. I mean, sure he was in love with her. May still be. But mostly he had just seen one too many guys break her. Then the rest of us had to be there to pick up the pieces. Vince'd never hurt her like the other have. And I know you didn't do it on purpose, or at least you couldn't help it. But the fact still remains that ever since grade school she's been the girl that got picked on for various things and she never learned how to deal with it so it didn't hurt her. I learned fast and then it was my job to stand up for her."  
  
"Mia got picked on in school? Why?"  
  
"For being too pretty. For having Dominic as a brother. He's always been sort of the wild badass type. But since Mia was the opposite it didn't help her much. Girls always see her as some sort of threat because she's so pretty. And she's like the perfect woman. She cooks, she cleans, she sings, she'll be an awesome mom. She's pretty and smart. If she was just one or the other then she'd likely have gotten off easier then she did."  
  
"What about you? Did you get picked on too?"  
  
"Not as much because people learned quick that I had the right hook to back up my threats. I got in trouble a lot at school. I can't count how many times Van had to come collect me from the principal's office."  
  
"Van?"  
  
"Dom and Mia's father. He practically raised me too. It's not like the school could ever get a hold of my parents. So when they found out I was practically living at the Toretto's house anyway they just started calling Van."  
  
"Was he mad about it?"  
  
"Naw, not Van. He was the nicest guy on earth. And he knew I was just sticking up for Mia half the time anyway. He'd just take me home for the rest of the day and let me help him work on his car or in the garage. Dom hated it. He always treated me like a pest. Till I turned 16 and he decided it was ok to like me then."  
  
I laughed with the memory of how it almost was just like a light switch. One day I was too young to really notice the next I was 16 and everything was fine.  
  
"Decided it was ok to like you?"  
  
"Yeah, he didn't think a 'man of his age' should be interested in a 'girl of my age' till I turned 16 then he figured I was old enough to make up my own mind. I think it helped that his dad really approved. Van wanted to see us together. I know we're letting him down with how we've been treating each other lately."  
  
"You're not letting anyone down. Maybe you've been together so long it was really time for a break to try and remember why you got together in the first place."  
  
I nodded.  
  
"So how did you end up officially together?"  
  
I told Brian the story of the purple Silvia. He sat quietly through the whole thing. It seemed to touch him in some way though. Then he suggested we really go to bed.  
  
Being dead tired myself I agreed and we did so. 


	16. Towed in his wake

Chapter 16 – In his wake?  
  
I woke up the next morning late again. I'd had a horrible night's sleep. It had been filled with nightmares about me and Dom.  
  
About Dom meeting another girl and falling for her while I was gone.  
  
About something happening to him and me not being there for him.  
  
About Dom telling me he didn't love me when I went back.  
  
About me falling for someone else and not wanting to go back.  
  
And worst of all perhaps, about Dom telling me he'd realized he didn't need me anymore when I went back.  
  
It had kept me up half the night thinking about it after I woke up from that dream. I didn't know what to do.  
  
It's like I know I'm missing stuff happening back home and I don't want to. Stuff's changing and I'm not there to see it. Things might never be the same when I go back and I'll have missed all the events that made it happen. I don't want anything to change because I want my old life back. But then my old life wasn't so hot either. But it was familiar. I want Dom to change. But it also scares me that he might change and realize he doesn't want me anymore.  
  
It's one of those you can't have everything situations but that doesn't stop me from wanting everything anyway.  
  
Laying in bed wasn't helping me with any of the things that I feel I have to get done. I hauled my ass out of bed and got dressed and walked out into the kitchen. Brian was no where to be seen but he had left a note on the table for me telling me that he'd gone to the garage and I could head up and see how things went on around there if I wanted to.  
  
I figured I may as well. I was kinda hoping that Rome would remember he'd told me he was going to show me Miami too. But I didn't want to go for a drive with him in shop cloths. I figured if I was just going up to meet people and see how their operation worked I didn't really need to be dressed in work clothes anyway. That meant the tank top and cargos I had on were fine.  
  
I snatched up my keys off the kitchen table and headed up to the garage. The place was huge, bigger then I remembered. All the team's cars that had been in there for safety overnight when Brian had showed me his skyline had been moved out and customer work had been brought in.  
  
"Mornin' Lett. I didn't think you were starting till tomorrow." Brian called out as I walked in the door.  
  
"Doesn't matter. I can start now if you've got something you want me to do but I more or less just came down because I didn't want to sit around the boat alone all day."  
  
"No way girl. You can't get dirty a mere hour before I'm putting you in my convertible." Rome told me from behind my right shoulder which caused me to jump. I hadn't seen him when I walked in and his answer surprised me.  
  
"Oh, are we doing that today?" I asked, pretending I'd forgotten about it.  
  
"Yeah, that's today. I'm taking you out for lunch first though. I hope that's ok?"  
  
"Sure." I answered and dodged a dirty look from Brian. I guess Brian figured it was too 'date-like' for us to have lunch before Rome showed me around the city. Oh Brian, I thought we had this figured out, I mused to myself. I guess Brian is still not thrilled with the idea of me seeing his friend.  
  
"Good. Let's go then." Rome started for the door.  
  
I followed him. I felt Brian's eyes boring into my back as we left, Rome holding the door open for me to precede him out of the garage.  
  
"So I get a guided tour of Miami in a convertible eh? You better make it worth my time." I teased as I got into the car.  
  
"Sounds like a challenge to me."  
  
"Oh, it was." I laughed and Rome joined me.  
  
"So, what did you do for fun in L.A.?"  
  
"Raced mostly. Or, well, watched Dom race. Partied every Saturday after he won. Worked. I worked a lot. What do you do for fun?"  
  
"Hang out at Tej's. Man, it's always a happening party at Tej's. You race awful good for someone who mostly only watches."  
  
"Yeah well, I was taught by the best there is."  
  
"Really? Brian taught you to race?" Rome looked serious. I don't know if he was or not but man, he looked it.  
  
I started to laugh and I couldn't stop. I almost peed on the seat of Rome's precious spyder. He thought there was something Brian could teach me about racing?  
  
He wasn't laughing back. I slowed to a laughing stop.  
  
"You were serious? You thought Chumpy could have taught ME how to race?"  
  
"Brian's the best around here. Don't tell him I said so but he's even just a bit better then I am."  
  
"No way there's anything Bri could teach me about racing. Van taught me to race. Back when I was 16."  
  
"Van?"  
  
"Yeah, Dom's dad. Boy it pissed Dom off when his dad taught me to race. He told me once we were gonna rule the streets but I think he meant he'd rule the streets and I'd be by his side smiling while he did it. Either that or the wanted to be the one to teach me and he just got upset that his dad did it."  
  
"He didn't like it when you learned to race?"  
  
"No. Well, that's not fair. Things changed. He didn't mind at first but then it started to piss him off. At first he got off on the fact that his girlfriend could beat every guy on the streets. But him. I've never beaten Dom in a race."  
  
Why was I telling Rome this stuff? I hardly know him at all. He's just easy to talk to. I some how doubt he asked me out to hear about my boyfriend. Even if said boyfriend is technically somewhere in the grey area between boyfriend and Ex.  
  
"You've tried to race him?"  
  
"Well, hell yeah. He's the best in L.A. I beat everyone else. Our friend Leon can catch me about half the time but Dom gets me every time. I know every detail, every trick and weakness of his car but he still always gets away from me in the end. I mean he has all the same advantages of knowing my car but I still don't know how he does it."  
  
"You know I wonder that about Brian some times. I know he's driving a skyline and that alone makes him hard to keep up with but there's more to it then that. It's in the drive to win I think."  
  
"Well, how do you explain why I can't ever beat Dom then? I have just as much drive as he does."  
  
"Maybe you just think you do."  
  
I shot Rome a dirty look. I was just as driven as Dom.  
  
"Isn't this the guy Brian told me about who looked up to his dad more then anyone in the whole world then his dad was killed in a racing accident?"  
  
"Yeah. That's Dom."  
  
"Then they banned him off the tracks for life and he couldn't follow in his Dad's footsteps like he always just assumed he would."  
  
"Yeah." I thought I knew where Rome was going and I didn't like it one bit. He was about to make me feel sorry for Dom in some capacity.  
  
"So all he ever wanted was to follow in his father's footsteps and then his dad was killed. And that would be bad enough but then in his grief he made a stupid mistake and had the one thing he always figured he'd do, and something his dad no doubt wanted for him, taken from him. So then all he has left for a chance to follow his dad in some capacity is this illegal racing, so he does it so fast and so furious that no one can beat him. It's like he's telling the world and his dad that he's just as good at what he does as he would be on the tracks."  
  
"Um." I answered noncommittally.  
  
"You think I'm wrong?" Rome asked.  
  
"No. I think you're right and it pisses the hell outta me."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"Cause I'm still mad at him and I don't want anyone making me feel sorry for him. But you're right of course. He's got more reason to want to be the best then I do. I do sort of forget that. But his dad's been gone a long time. It's time for him to make new goals. No one can street race forever. We all have to stop sometime."  
  
Rome nodded in agreement with me.  
  
"True dat. Hope you like Cuban food. I know the people who own this place and they'll take good care of us." Rome told me as he pulled up to a pretty little restaurant.  
  
The smells coming out of the place were so good. I was more hungry then I'd realized. I hope Rome isn't expecting me to eat like a model cause I don't. I'm a real person and I work up an appetite most days in the garage. I don't have to worry much about my weight because of all the activity I do and so I eat when I'm hungry.  
  
"I'm not fussy. I like most food." I admitted as we got out of the car.  
  
"Well, good. That's how I am too."  
  
We walked into the place and sure enough the older woman manning the counter did rush up to us and hug Rome while chattering at him in somewhat broken English. She showed us to a table in the window and looked me up and down.  
  
"Where did you find the beautiful Senoritia?" She asked Rome in her heavily accented English.  
  
"She found us." Rome answered with a laugh.  
  
"Where are you from?" The lady asked me in Spanish.  
  
I could have pretended not to understand but that didn't seem nice at all. The lady reminded me of what every kid's grandmother should be like.  
  
"My family is Portia Rican but I grew up mostly in L.A." I answered her in Spanish.  
  
"Good!" She answered in Spanish then switched to English for Rome's sake. "I'll get you some menus. Your Senoritia can translate for you this time." She laughed at Rome as she said that then bustled off to get us menus.  
  
"You speak Spanish?" Rome asked, one eyebrow raised.  
  
"Yeah." I admitted somewhat sheepishly.  
  
"Why'd you let the gang think you didn't?" Rome asked, still just looking interested.  
  
"Um...Well..." I didn't really want to answer.  
  
"Oh come on now. There must be a reason."  
  
"Yeah. Brian knows I'm bilingual of course but the reason I didn't let on to everyone was because I think that Suki girl is going to try to use my being a 'Rican who doesn't speak Spanish against me some day and it's going to backfire in her face because, oops, I do speak Spanish after all. I'm sorry if that's mean but ever since she gave me attitude about Brian and I didn't back down from her I've just had this feeling that she's out to get me and I don't know why."  
  
Rome laughed at me. The Cuban lady brought menus and we started to look them over as Rome continued to look at me curiously.  
  
"How'd you figure Suki out so well when you hardly know her? She will likely shoot her mouth off in Spanish someday to try and insult you. And then since you'll get it the fur will really start to fly."  
  
"Maybe but I really don't want to fight with her you know? I just don't let people take advantage of me either."  
  
"I understand. She'll come around. She's always nervous of new people trying to take her place around the garage."  
  
"And what exactly is her place? You can't tell me she's a mechanic."  
  
She'd looked too flimsy. I couldn't see her pulling wrenches or getting greasy. Maybe as a female mechanic I shouldn't feel that way but I do. Some women you can imagine pulling wrenches and some you can't. Suki is one of the ones you can't. Of course she is one of those girls who I could see going to learn mechanics in the hopes that the males in the class will fall over themselves to help her do shit.  
  
"No, she doesn't do mechanics. She designs and paints cars. She's really quite good. She'll either have the designs die cut out of vinyl or she's good with the airbrush too. She did her own car and Tej's and a whole bunch more around Miami. People come to her to have her design their pain jobs and then paint their cars."  
  
"I'm not good with paint so she's got no worries there. I can do designs though. I did the designs for my car and Dom's. Plus, well, hell, I did all the cars on our team. I don't know how Vince ended up with a shark not a coyote but I designed all the team's decals."  
  
"Oh yeah? What do they all have other then Vince and his shark?"  
  
"Dom has a rocket ship, go figure." We laughed. "Leon has a Japanese thunder god with a sword and green eyes. Leon has green eyes." I explained. "Jesse has a person riding a bomb. He wanted a rocket and I protested against putting one on a Jetta so I gave him a bomb. He thinks it's a rocket, I let him think that way. Vince and his shark, I don't know how that worked out. I was just fooling around one day and he saw me draw a car that looked sort of like his Maxima with sharks on it and he liked it. What Coyote likes he gets. Brian's supra had something similar to Leon's car and Mia's Acura has a flying angel on it. I have pictures back at the house somewhere. Mia puts the graphics on."  
  
"How'd you pick your own design on the Silvia?"  
  
"I'm tied to the car and it's pulling me along for the ride with it? I don't really know. It was one of those things that just came to me and I put it on there. Some days I hate it because I feel like the person on the side, being pulled along in Dom's wake on my knees. Then sometimes I feel like I am being pulled along but it's by the power in my engine and how I drive it, not by Dom. I don't know..."  
  
"So change the decals." Rome replied. "If they make you mad sometimes then change them. It's just a car, it shouldn't ever bother you by how it looks just sitting there."  
  
"But it's not just a car." I sighed. How to explain why my car was not 'just a car' to someone who saw cars and racing as a cool pastime and way to get an adrenaline fix. I didn't know if I could explain it to someone who didn't eat, breath, live, and sleep racing. "There is no such thing as just a car where I'm from. I've always been into cars. Ever since I can remember. And I had this little purple toy car that I loved. I always said I was going to own a real version of it someday. Then I got older and reality set in and I realized that someday was likely never going to come. But Dom knew how upset I was and he bought me that car for my 16th birthday and taught me to drive. And he sort of helped me design that one. So I just don't think I can up and change it because some days I feel down about how things are playing out you know."  
  
"Yeah. I guess I get that."  
  
We ordered and ate. We mostly stayed away from deep topics for the rest of lunch. I was glad in one way, because I just wanted to have a good time. But I enjoyed talking to Rome too. He was a heck of a listener and he seemed to know what to say and when to say it to help me clarify things or at least gain some perspective on them.  
  
When we finished our lunch we left and got back into the eclipse.  
  
"So where we going now?" I asked out of curiosity.  
  
"Just for a drive around. I'll show you the sights then I have a surprise planned for after supper."  
  
"So this is going to be the all day tour is it?"  
  
"Yeah. I have a full day of activity for the new to Miami planned."  
  
I leaned back in the seat.  
  
"Ok, I'm the new to Miami so let's get the rest of this show on the road."  
  
Rome chuckled and pulled the car away from the curb. 


	17. Dirty Dancing: Miami Nights

Chapter 17 – Dirty Dancing: Miami Nights  
  
AN: This chapter contains spoilers for Dirty Dancing:Havana nights. I couldn't help it. So if you haven't seen that movie and want to you might want to skip over the parts where they go see the movie. I mean, if you saw the original then you know pretty much what happens anyway.  
  
Rome merged into traffic and headed toward what I assumed was the downtown area of Miami.  
  
We just drove around for awhile and he pointed out malls and interesting shops till we got to what looked like a market area. He parked the car and got out. Then he stood, staring at me as I sat in the car looking back at him.  
  
"Well, you gonna get out?" He asked me.  
  
"Maybe. Where the hell are we?" I asked him peering over the top of my shades.  
  
"It's a farmer's market. Come on. It'll be fun."  
  
"If you think so..."  
  
I guess his idea of fun is slightly different from mine. But hey, he was the tour guide and I was the new to Miami after all. I got out of the car and followed him into the market.  
  
The first part of it was mostly produce. It wasn't very interesting but the way that Rome carried on the whole time was. He kept cracking jokes about the stuff that was there and he was keeping me laughing. It was great. He was such a clown. But it was charming in a lot of ways.  
  
With the sun pouring down on my bare shoulders and back and someone going out of their way to entertain me all my worries slipped away. I didn't have anything on my mind other then me and Rome and all the brightly coloured food and handicrafts on display in the market. I'm sure they had stuff like this back in L.A. but I'd never gone. It was kinda fun. Not that I plan on telling Rome that. At least, not yet.  
  
He bought three oranges and then tried to teach me to juggle. Yep, he can juggle. It turns out I can't. It's harder then it looks ok? He tried to teach me for what felt like hours. I can't damn well juggle. He kept trying to tell me to do this and do that and it would work. But it never did. Then I ate one of his oranges so he'd stop and not try to teach me any more.  
  
He pretended to be mad at me over eating the orange for about 5 minutes before he was off on another tangent and talking a mile a minute. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to have a male talk to you. Dom sure hadn't been doing too much talking to me lately and the other guys just didn't think of it very often I guess.  
  
I came across a table of handmade silver jewellery and thought of Mia so fast I forgot about Rome for a second. I stopped to look for something to send to her so she'd know I hadn't forgotten about her. Then I realized that I couldn't even mail her anything or they'd have the postmark from where I was. How depressing. I want to be able to send stuff to Mia and Vince. Maybe Brian would have a way around that.  
  
And if not then I'll just giver her my gift when I see her again. I saw a pair of very large sterling hoops and knew Mia would love them. And then a small silver crucifix on a delicate silver chain I knew she'd love too. It had turquoise inlay on the cross. She's just like me, she looks better in silver then gold because of her dark skin. Then I saw a silver ankle bracelet I wanted for myself. I had brought money with me so I bought all three items.  
  
When I had my items wrapped in tissue and in a paper bag I turned around, Rome suddenly remembered. He was right behind me with something behind his back.  
  
"Whatchya buy?" He asked me.  
  
"Present for Mia. You?"  
  
"Surprise. Close your eyes."  
  
"Good surprise?" I asked warily with my eyes narrowed. Surprises were never good when Dom sprung them on me.  
  
"Of course girl. Close those pretty eyes."  
  
"Flatterer." I accused but I did as he requested.  
  
I felt him moving the hair at the side of my head.  
  
"What're you doin?" I asked him, suspiciously.  
  
"You'll see." Was all he'd tell me in reply.  
  
After another minute he stopped playing with my hair.  
  
"There. Go see."  
  
That made me nervous. What had he done? The lady with the jewellery was right beside us and she had mirrors up. I walked up to one and looked. He'd put a flower in my hair. A beautiful red orchid.  
  
"It's beautiful." I didn't know what else to say. No one had ever really gotten me something like a flower for my hair. It was frivolous and done only for fun, for beauty.  
  
For me.  
  
It was sweet. It made me feel things I hadn't felt in a long time, if ever. Things like sentimentality and, well, I think I care about how I look for the first time in a long time. Not care that I look ok, but care that I look like a girl. Talk about strange. I looked up at Rome and met his eyes.  
  
"Not as beautiful as you."  
  
I laughed at that. He was so full of it. I knew he was only trying to get on my good side. More the fool me because it was working.  
  
"I bet you say that to all the girls."  
  
"Just the pretty ones." Rome laughed back at me.  
  
We explored the market and I picked up a present for Vince, Leon, and Jesse too. I was really hoping that Brian would have a way to get the presents to the team so they wouldn't have to wait till I went back to have them.  
  
"So, what now?" I asked as we settled back into Rome's car.  
  
"Well, it's supper time. You hungry?"  
  
"I could eat." I wasn't starving but I was having such a good time I didn't want it to end.  
  
It was nice to just hang out with a guy and have fun. It was only half ass planned and really it was more just fly by the seat of our pants fun. We were just doing whatever entered into Rome's head at the time he thought about it.  
  
We went to some little restaurant and had supper. We got back in the car and Rome headed off again.  
  
"Where are we going now? Home?"  
  
"Do you want to go home?" Rome asked me, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"Not especially, I was just curious. It's really up to you. It's been a long time since I spent a day doing nothing but having fun."  
  
"Well then, I have an idea." Rome turned the car and headed off toward downtown.  
  
He pulled into a huge theatre complex a few minutes later.  
  
"You want to see a movie?" I asked him, even though I guess the answer to that question was actually quite obvious.  
  
"Yeah." Rome chuckled like he'd realized how obvious that question was too.  
  
"What one?"  
  
"That is up to you. You pick." Rome told me.  
  
Whoa there. He wanted to let me pick? That never happens. The guys always get to pick the movies. Not that I got to go to that many but I never got to pick what we were going to see.  
  
"I get to pick?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"And you'll watch whatever it is I say I want to see?"  
  
"Yeah." Rome sighed. "You never pick a movie to go see before?"  
  
"Can't remember the last time." I answered honestly. "Some time Mia and I went alone I guess."  
  
"Well, the dry spell comes to an end this evening."  
  
We walked into the theatre and got in line.  
  
I looked over the movies that were playing. Nothing car related so nothing jumped out at me. Then the poster for Havana nights caught my eye. Now, being from South America myself that movie sort of looked good, plus it would center around dancing. A subject near and dear to my heart.  
  
Ever since Dominic had taught me to Salsa with him I'd loved to dance. Any kind of dance really but my favourite was when Dom would take me into those incredible arms and we'd move together like water flowing.  
  
We were totally fluid when we danced. We were like one person, totally in sync with each other when we danced.  
  
At first he'd only taught me because his dad made him and plus Dom had needed a girl to learn with. But I'd been too young to really get it when Van had first been teaching Dom. It was just a fun thing for me and Mia to do then. We'd take turns dancing with Dom and Van.  
  
I can still remember Van smiling down at me telling me I had rhythm and I was going to be one heck of a dancer someday. I didn't believe him then. It came from being a Tom Boy. I had already convinced myself that I wasn't going to be good at anything women were stereotypically good at. I had myself convinced that it was Mia's job to be good at woman things and my place was to be good at 'guy things'.  
  
When Dom and I became a couple I proved Van right and myself wrong. I was one hell of a dancer with Dom. I'd never danced with anyone but Dom. And I loved it every time. And because it was one thing we did together, and as far as I knew only together it became on of my favourite things. But I didn't tell very many people about it because it didn't jive with my tough girl image.  
  
"Well, what's it gonna be?" Rome asked and I realized we were at the head of the line.  
  
"Havana nights." I answered without a trace of the insecurity I was feeling at picking a movie that I figured he was going to hate.  
  
"I was hopping you'd say that." Rome chuckled and paid for our tickets despite my protest I could pay for my own and that he'd already done too much paying for two meals for us already.  
  
I couldn't detect a hint of lying in his tone either. I figured he was just going along with me because he'd said I could pick and he'd really hate the movie. But it seemed from the way he was acting he really had wanted to see it as well.  
  
We got in line for popcorn and both ended up with large soft drinks and one big ass bag of popcorn to share. I think Rome's going to be unpleasantly surprised when he sees how much popcorn I can put away. I learned from the king of eating after all, Vince.  
  
"You can't tell the guys I went to see this movie willingly ok? You have to pretend I said you could pick but I at least put up a protest when you picked this one ok? I have a reputation to worry about." Rome grinned down at me.  
  
"You men and your 'rep'. It's always so important to you and you don't even realize it's only other guys who even care." I laughed. "But I'll pretend you put up a good fight then gave in since you were being gentlemanly."  
  
"Good girl." Rome answered, chuckling.  
  
We got seats and the movie started shortly thereafter. It was a great story. Based on real events if you believe the title screen of the movie.  
  
It's about this girl, who's uprooted from her life by circumstances beyond her control and has to go live in a new place, leaving everything she knows behind. She falls for a boy while she's there. They dance, they love, then she has to leave because of a war. It's a movie about growing up and discovering yourself. Anyone see any parallels for my life there? Cause I sure did.  
  
I had to fight tears with a vengeance at the end of that movie. I'm Letty, I don't cry at movies. I don't care how sad they are. But thinking of Katey leaving Javier in Cuba to go home to the USA with her family because of the revolution in Cuba, then thinking of the revolution that happened in our own house in California that made me leave Dom was upsetting.  
  
Then I thought of the dancing that I had just seen and I wanted to dance. I wanted to go dance to Latin rhythms more then anything else I'd ever wanted. It was about 9:30, we'd caught the early show.  
  
We got back out to the car and it was still so hot out. It was just like California. The evening darkness brought little relief from the sultry heat.  
  
"What do you want to do now?" Rome asked.  
  
"Honestly?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"I want to go dancing like they danced in that movie."  
  
"Then let's go do it!" Rome said and took my hand as he started to run for his car.  
  
"Whoa there. Slow down. I can't dance in cargo pants and a tank top, we don't know where to hear music like that, and we don't know if we can dance like that together."  
  
"We'll stop at the mall and buy you something to wear, I know how to dance like that and I know where to find a club that plays that kind of music. The light is young Senoritia, let's go!" Rome said laughingly as he opened the car door for me. "I have this feeling that you dance at least as good as that chick in the movie."  
  
"Alright then, bring it on." I agreed. Hell, I deserve to be spontaneous every once in a while don't I? "And yeah, I dance ok."  
  
We went to the mall and I actually modeled different outfits for Rome, trying to decide which to buy. I tried on so many clothes and some of them we laughed at because they looked so strange, some made Rome have an unreadable look on his face that I assumed meant I was showing too much skin. Some made him screw his face up in distaste. He had great taste in women's clothes. He must be like Leon, a ladies man. Nothing I'd tried on had worked yet. I settled on a halter style dress that was cut almost to the top of my thigh on one side but almost to my knee on the other and was red but faded into black at the bottom. I'd snuck it into the room so Rome had no idea I was even trying it on. I knew as soon as I saw it on it was 'the one'. I walked out of the changing room.  
  
"Well?"  
  
"Wow." Rome breathed out in answer. So I was right, I had found 'the dress'.  
  
I bought it. I drew the line at having any man pay for my clothes. Then I changed in the mall washroom and Rome headed off to the dance club he was taking me too. In my Latin style dress with the red flower in my hair I felt like a sexy woman for the first time in a long time. I always knew I had sex appeal but I...I can't explain it really but knowing that guys want to get with you because you're showing some skin and your Dom's girlfriend is different from feeling like men are admiring you because you look pretty. It was heady. I was with a hansom man, who wanted to be with me because he wanted to, not because he always had been, in a convertible going to dance the night away.  
  
We pulled up to a club called Bongo's and Rome let a valet park the car. Where I come from you don't let other people drive your car, but we don't roll in flashy circles back home. We just run racing and it's different. Rome must be a player of some sort because as we walked in people knew who he was.  
  
"You must be a player huh? Half these people know who you are." I giggled as we walked in.  
  
"I just like to dance and I don't normally have a girl to dance with when I show up so I get to know some of the ladies when we dance together is all."  
  
Rome almost looked embarrassed when he made this revelation to me.  
  
"Right." I drawled. "Well, shall we get a drink and do a little dancing?"  
  
"Sounds good." Rome led me over to a bar in the middle of the club. The bar had stools all around it shaped like, what else, bongo drums.  
  
We got drinks and stood around drinking them for the first few minutes. Rome introduced me to several of his friends that came over. He seemed to me to be making a statement about who I was with when he introduced me to the other guys who came over but I didn't mind. I wasn't there to pick up after all. I was only out with Rome because he'd caught my interest in a way I couldn't deny.  
  
And we danced. And Rome was good. But he wasn't Dom.  
  
I was good with Rome. We both knew the steps and I'm sure we looked very good to the people watching. And I know we must have looked pretty good from the shear number of people who were standing around the edge of where we were dancing just watching us. But there was a certain passion missing when I danced with Rome that was there when I danced with Dom.  
  
We were just good at dancing, we weren't connected on that deeper level that Dom and I had been at one point, and still were. At least we still were when we danced. But then again I hardly knew Rome after all.  
  
I think I'm kidding myself. We dance well, and I'm still having a good time with him but I know in my heart he'll never be to me what Dom was. And I don't know at this point if I care about that. Dom wasn't so great for me after all. Look how we ended up.  
  
And with that thought I let go of the deep contemplations and just danced. We danced through song after song and I didn't even notice the time pass but before I knew it they were telling us it was the last song. That meant it was 4am.  
  
We collected the car and Rome helped me into it. Then we headed off toward home.  
  
"I didn't know it was so late. I have to get up to work tomorrow." I made conversation as we drove toward Tej's place.  
  
"Don't worry 'bout getting up early on Tej's account. Just leave Brian a note explaining how late you go home and he'll tell Tej for both of us." Rome said as he reclined in the driver's seat of his car.  
  
"I'll feel like crap doing that on my first day."  
  
"Naw, we do it to him all the time. We work some odd hours around Tej's. You can go in for 2 and work till 8 if you want to. Tej won't care."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure."  
  
We mostly drove in silence for the rest of the ride home. The Miami skyline at night is beautiful. We arrived home and Rome walked me down to the boat. I let myself in with the key Brian had given me and turned to Rome.  
  
"Thanks for the evening. I had a lot of fun." I told him, holding the bag my purchases and my other clothes were in.  
  
"I did too. Maybe we'll do it again some time?"  
  
"I think I'd like that." I answered him and found it to be true. I had had fun and I would like to do it again sometime.  
  
"Good. I'll see you around the garage tomorrow anyway."  
  
"Ok, see you then."  
  
Rome kissed my cheek and headed up toward Tej's. I turned to go to my room. Brian switched on the light in the kitchen as I walked through. 


	18. Busted

Chapter 18 – Busted  
  
"Damn Letty, I know Miami's big and all but surely it's not so big as to take twelve hours to see." Brian said sarcastically from his seat at the kitchen table.  
  
"No it's not Brian. We got dinner and saw a movie too." I answered and set my stuff down. I was trying hard not to respond in kind, with sarcasm.  
  
I didn't want to have a big fight with Brian because he had a point or two about me getting attached to Rome. But I was also a big girl who was old enough to decide for herself what she wanted to risk, what was acceptable.  
  
It was one of the things about Dom that drove me crazy after all, how he tried to run my life. I didn't want to think I was one of these women who ran from one control freak to another.  
  
I knew that Brian was only looking after me the best way he knew how. I knew I was showing the world a pretty good, together girl, but Brian knew how often nightmares still woke me and how upset I still truly was.  
  
It was getting better but it was far from ok.  
  
"Letty..." Brian sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  
  
"Wha?" I asked, a picture of a frustrated Vince in my mind while I said it. It was his 'what the hell do you want cause I don't want to talk to you' way of saying what.  
  
"Dom called my phone while you were out. I don't think he knew who I was because he didn't go totally ballistic. But he asked after you and I just told him you were out and hung up but he seemed really mad when I told him. I don't know if you playing around like this with Rome is a good idea."  
  
"Who says I'm playing around with Rome? I like him and he likes me. It's not like either of us are looking for a long term commitment. I know I want to go home to California at some point and you're the one who told me that Rome's the kind of guy who doesn't want to settle down."  
  
"I know that Letty but...Dom was seriously pissed off. I just don't want to see you get hurt in the long run over a fling Lett."  
  
"I'll phone him tomorrow and tell him something Bri. You don't have to worry about me. I've been taking care of myself for a long time." I sighed.  
  
"Maybe that's part of your problem then Letty. You need someone to just take care of you instead of ordering you around and trying to be the boss. And Rome's that kind of guy."  
  
"So maybe I'll fall for him and he'll fall for me. Would that be the end of the world?" I was just being factious and I think Brian knew it.  
  
"No. But you'll still want to go home to California. And if you didn't then I'd still have to go because I've come to see you're right about me needing to face up to the team. To Mia. But if you go home with a new boyfriend in tow Dom'll pitch a fit that'll make any other time he was angry look like a hissy fit."  
  
"Brian, it's gonna be fine. I don't see myself falling for Rome and I don't see Rome falling for me. He wants to show me a good time because I'm sad and he doesn't like it and I want to go home to my familia in California too much to want to live here forever. It'll all work out. You'll see. Now I haveta go to bed before I fall asleep where I stand." I started down the hall then paused and pivoted back to face Brian again.  
  
"You'll tell Tej why I'm late and that I'll stay late to make up for it will you? I can't imagine me getting up at 9 for work."  
  
"Sure, I'll tell him." Brian didn't look like our chat had helped him find any comfort from his worries.  
  
I thought he had plans to get a new cell phone number anyway. I didn't want to worry that it was Dominic ever time the phone rang. I didn't mind talking to him anymore, but I didn't mind talking to him on my own terms. Same went for the rest of the guys.  
  
Mia I worried about. She was so much more fragile then me and I almost figured she might need a way to call me if she really had to talk. I might have to have a chat with Brian about hooking me up with one of those cell phones that came from another state so that I could give Mia the number and tell her she could call if she had an emergency.  
  
I climbed into my bed and I guess I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.  
  
I dreamed about Dom. But not the kind of dreams that made me wake up screaming with Brian running to my side.  
  
I dreamed about my senior prom. Dom took me. I was 18 and we'd been dating for 2 years.  
  
I went with Dom, Mia went with this kid named Joseph and Vince took a girl named Cindy that hung around with us sometimes. She didn't have another date and Vince took pity on her for being the odd girl out.  
  
He actually wore a tux and shaved all but his moustache off for the occasion. Not only that but he managed not to stare at Mia the whole evening. I said the whole evening. He did some staring, just not the whole evening.  
  
I can't blame him for staring at Mia. She was beautiful that night. Her hair was doing that flowing, wavy thing it does so well and her dress was soft pink. It was strapless, almost backless and fell to the floor. It was fitted in the bodice and full in the skirt and looked perfect against her skin.  
  
Cindy looked pretty good herself. She was fair skinned and a pale honey blond. Her hair was as long as Mia's but bone straight. She wore a black dress, halter style with a medium cut back. It was to the floor as well but it was fitted the whole way down. She was slender like Mia. She looked good on Vince's arm. Too bad he couldn't have seen that himself. There could be little Vince's running around right now if he had because she had it bad for him. So many of our girlfriends did have it bad for either Vince or Dom or a little of both. Not that I blame them. Dom's perfection and Vince isn't far behind. But I find it gross to think of Vince like that.  
  
I was so nervous about going to the prom with Dominic. We hadn't made a big deal about the fact we were dating because of the age difference. It didn't matter to me but it seemed to bother Dom so I didn't want to force things. I knew he figured all my teachers would be looking at him like he was using me or abusing me in some way. Never mind that they still called Van when I got in trouble and they had to know that he didn't have any issues with it, even though he was practically raising me and Dominic was his own kid.  
  
I didn't know what to wear. Mia took me dress shopping but everything she dressed me in was like her style. All the dresses she picked looked like bridesmaids dresses. I didn't want to wear anything that fancy. I really wanted to go to the prom but it didn't mean I was going to become the pretty, feminine, Barbie girl that I wasn't for the night either. I was desperately searching for a dress that was my style.  
  
But the trouble was I didn't have a dress style. I had lots of style, just none when it came to dresses and the stuff that went with them.  
  
I searched in store after store with Mia and I finally found what I wanted in a vintage clothing store. It was hot pink, go figure, with black satin ribbon trim. It was straight out of the 50's, had a crinoline and everything. It had a high waist with a black satin ribbon around it, just under my breasts and a varied hem also edged in the satin.  
  
Mia and I both knew as soon as we saw it on me that it was the dress I had to wear. Come to think of it, it was rather like the dress I bought out with Rome.  
  
It reminded me of hot South America nights. It wasn't a traditional prom gown. But Dom and I weren't a traditional couple either. I bought it and Mia helped me get ready on prom night. Cindy came over and we made a night of it.  
  
We snuck some peach Schnapps into Mia's room and drank it while we got ready. Mia's date had hired a limo for the night so we didn't have to worry about drives. We did each other's make up and got dressed.  
  
Well, ok, Cindy and Mia did each other's makeup then they did mine. I didn't have much of a clue about makeup. I still don't. I almost didn't know myself when they were done. To quote Mia, they hid most of my pimples with 'foundation' and took the shine off my skin with some powder. Then they painted my eyelids a gold color and highlighted my cheekbones with gold powder too.  
  
Mia made me sit through half an hour of her 'shaping my eyebrows'. But I still keep them the way she did them to this day so I guess she did alright. I like the way she made them have a point almost like wings instead of curves.  
  
She painted my lips pink to match my dress and then put some of her gold powder on my bare shoulders and into my 'cleavage' which was her word for my boobs. I didn't think anything as small as my boobs were at 18 deserved to have their own name.  
  
By the time we headed down the stairs we looked rather good if I do say so myself. But I was more then slightly buzzed from drinking a third of a large bottle of the liquor that Cindy had provided as well.  
  
Mia went first and her date's mouth dropped open and I could literally see old Coyote try not to deck him. Poor Vince. He wanted to be the one taking Mia. But he wasn't and he never will be.  
  
But he seemed just as impressed with Cindy in her dress. It was hard not to be impressed with either of them in their prom gowns. They both looked so feminie and beautiful.  
  
There I was in a dress and I still felt like the worlds biggest tom boy. I felt like a fraud. Like the whole world was going to know I didn't belong in that dress, they were all going to know I was pretending to be something I wasn't.  
  
And then I kinda felt like Dom belonged with a girl who belonged in the dress, not a fraud like me.  
  
But then Mia and Cindy got out of the way and Dom saw me for the first time in my dress with my eyebrows 'shaped' and my makeup done. And his eyes turned black and I could tell he didn't want to go anymore. He wanted to drag me back upstairs and show me he had much more fun things for us to do then go to some stupid dance.  
  
It made me laugh. It was the first time I'd ever tasted my feminine powers over Dom outside of his room and it was heady stuff. He really wanted me no matter how I looked. He wanted me in my greasy undershirts and he wanted me in a fancy Spanish style dress.  
  
He just wanted me.  
  
That was then and this was now, but then he just wanted me.  
  
We went to the prom and had a great night as a group. And Dom and I did get some strange looks but we were so much in our own little world of each other we hardly noticed. We, the girls, snuck more liquor into prom and were sneaking drinks out of it in the corner every chance we got.  
  
Dom caught us and it must have looked like three deer caught in headlights. He looked mad at first then he took the bottle and took a drink. When he realized what it was he laughed so hard at us that tears rolled down his cheeks and he gave it back. He thought it was such a girly drink there was no harm in us drinking as much of it as we wanted.  
  
How wrong he was. We all got smashed off it and we were all sick as dogs the next day. But we had fun the night of.  
  
Well, Dom and I had more fun than anyone else because we went home to the same house and snuck into the same room. I wonder sometimes if Van knew how often I didn't stay in Mia's room anymore. If he knew he didn't care and if he cared he didn't know. I felt guilty some times about it but I was in love with Dom so I convinced myself it was ok. And Van was too smart not to have had some idea what was going on.  
  
When I woke up from my dream it was 12pm and I figured I'd go up to the garage and start working. I didn't want Tej to think I was a total slacker. 


	19. Trial by Fire

Chapter 19 – Trial by Fire  
  
I wondered what they were up to at home as I walked up to the garage from Brian's boat. Were they backed up at home because I wasn't there? Was Dom bitching at everyone because of the extra work? Or because he was still mad at me for racing without his permission? Because I wasn't there to design for people who asked for me. Because he was being forced to admit to people I'd left him?  
  
Or were things just fine? Did they never need me that much? Had it all been in my head that things depended on me? Were things smoother without me and Dom having our explosive fights, without Dom taking it out on the rest of the team that I'd fought with him?  
  
He'd done a lot of that before. We'd have a fight then he'd take it out on the rest of the team. It didn't bother me that much when he did it to V because Vince would just tell him to fuck off and then get on with his life. Vince and Dom have that kind of relationship. Leon mostly just stood there with a pissed off look on his face and then shrugged it off when Dom was done yelling, sometimes then he'd shoot me a nasty look for making every fight worse then it had to be by bitching back at Dom. But most times after he did that he'd tell me he was sorry because he knew I shouldn't have to put up with the way Dom talked to me.  
  
But we all mostly had an understanding that Dom didn't really mean what he was 'oh so calmly' yelling about and it was just his way of getting the anger out without really blowing up. It didn't make it ok, but it was better then us always walking on eggshells around him.  
  
We all knew that if he didn't walk away from me and go take it out on someone else he and I would get into a fight that one of us wasn't walking away from. And considering the size difference it would likely be me. He never hit me, hit me. He almost did a whole bunch of times and he did slap me once when I said something really mean to him. We'd been locked in his room fighting for an hour and when I reached the end of my tether for it.  
  
I told him it was all his fault the thing with the trucks went bad.  
  
He called me a cynical bitch.  
  
I told him I wished that he hadn't made me that way by being such a rude, egotistical, self-important asqueroso (asshole).  
  
He had some other smart comment he came back with and I flew off the handle at him. I think I might have gone temporarily insane. But I said it all in Spanish, thinking he wouldn't get it. It went something like this.  
  
"Ocho ochenta! Jodete y aprieta el culo! Vete al carajo! Me vale madre usted pedazo de pelotudo! Chinga tu madre usted hijo de puta!"  
  
Now that literally means "I don't care what you say! Go fuck yourself! Go to the devil! I don't give a fuck you fucking idiot! Fuck your mother you son of a bitch!"  
  
I assumed Dom would know it was bad, but have no idea how bad or what I'd said. It seems that he picked up enough Spanish in high school to get some of it and enough Spanish slang from sitting with Hector in math to fill in some of the blanks. So he slapped me.  
  
You know the scene in Pretty Woman where Vivian wonders if they pull guys aside in high school and teach them just how to slap a woman to make it hurt as much as possible? I really wonder if they do that.  
  
Dom's blow knocked my head sideways and rattled my teeth. It stung like a son of a bitch and started to swell right away. I took off out of his room with my eyes swimming with unshed tears and a look that Dom later described to Mia as a wounded doe, and down to Vince. I always ran to Vince. He always knew what to say to make things seem better. He could always calm me down, and that helped to keep me safe from running back to Dom and fighting more. Making things even worse.  
  
That night his face just got all ruddy as he held me while I cried and made me keep the ice pack on my cheek even though the cold made it hurt worse, hoping it wouldn't bruise my 'pretty face'. I love Vince so much by times. I could see the little muscle in his cheek just ticking while he tried to calm himself down and stay with me instead of taking off to hunt for Dom's head. Vince couldn't stand men who hit women and I don't think he ever thought he'd see the day when it'd be Dom's head he wanted to bash in for it. But he'd also never seen me cry before that night, and he never has again to this day and I think that let him know I needed him more then he needed to go wail on Dominic.  
  
I didn't want them to come to blows over what Dom had done to me because I was worried one of them wouldn't walk away from that fight either. They're both strong as bulls and equally bull headed. Vince has a liking for firearms that Dom doesn't but I don't think he ever would have shot Dom over it. But a good old fashioned street fight would not have been out of his reach, angry as he was.  
  
Instead he stayed with me and I spent the night in his bed because I couldn't go back to Dom's room in the state I was in. It reminds me just how much alike Vince and Brian are in some ways. Vince never tried to take advantage of me; he just held me while I cried myself to sleep and watched over me all night.  
  
Dom and I were frosty to each other at breakfast then we all went to work.  
  
Jesse was doing a front brake job to some Nissan and he broke off the slider bolt. Dom was in a terrible mood so Jesse came to me about what to do. They always came to me about what to do about problems when Dom was in a bad mood.  
  
I phoned Harry and there was no way we were getting a replacement till the next day. It's a specialized item, not just any bolt will work so we had to wait. Dom had promised the car would be ready by the end of the day and we all knew he was going to flip.  
  
Dom came out to find out why the car was still in the air and not finished. Normally it wouldn't have been a big deal. Shit like that happens. Wasn't like it was Jesse's fault after all. It could have been anyone working on that car. The bold was weak, no one could have known. It's really better it broke off where we can know it's bad and fix it then have it break off some day when the owner is in an emergency braking situation.  
  
Jesse told him what had happened and that the replacement would be in first thing in the morning at Harry's. Dom went ballistic and went to take it out on Jess because he was still mad at me. He went to take it out on Jess once and that was the first and only time that ever happened.  
  
As soon as I saw him start to go in at the kid I literally dragged him into his office to 'talk'. I fought with him so bad about that that I almost made Dom cry. Jesse's like a kid, he's so eager to please. I wasn't having Dom yelling at Jesse because he just didn't know how to deal with his anger at me. It wasn't right for him to yell at anyone over it but least of all Jesse.  
  
Then Leon did his thing and got Jesse calmed down, then Dom. And life went on. It always did.  
  
I wonder how the dynamic works in the garage up here at Tej's? Do they have a baby to protect? A peacemaker to quiet their fights? A tough guy to protect them all? A leader to keep things running on time? A woman behind him who's really the one making it all work out?  
  
And of course the question of the hour, the most important one of all is how will I fit in? What will my role become? I won't be the woman behind the man anymore. I won't be the woman the boss loves, or at least sleeps with. I'll be a nobody and the newest person around.  
  
I see a lot of tires and oil changes in my near future. I know that's how it is for every new mechanic at every garage around but I don't have to like it.  
  
The best feeling in the world is taking a car that runs like shit and with your own skills and TLC turning it into a purring kitten that runs like a wild mustang in the plains, all thundering hooves and flying manes and rippling muscles.  
  
You don't get that same sense of accomplishment out of changing the oil and tires on grandma's Accord. And there was no guarantee that the work that came into Tej's is the same as what we got at DT. No one says Tej is as well known as Dom. Just because everyone brings their performance cars to Dom because he really is that damn good doesn't mean Miami feels the same about Tej.  
  
I walked into the shop and things were running along great, or so it seemed. There were shiny cars all around and Jimmy, Tej, Brian and some other guy I'd never been introduced to were all under cars. Tej had a hoist for every bay which sure was nice. Dom's shop only has two so some of us are always working on creepers under a car that's up on stands. It works but it's a lot nicer to be on your feet then on your back on a board with wheels.  
  
I walked up to Tej first thing.  
  
"Sorry I slept in. I had a late night."  
  
"Yeah Brian told me. You ready to work?"  
  
"Yeah. Sure am. What should I do?"  
  
"I'm going to have you work on this." Tej trailed off and walked me over to the farthest back bay where something was under a car cover.  
  
"What is it?" I asked.  
  
"My car."  
  
"Ok, what's wrong with it?" I asked, worried. Working on the bosses car on my first day. Could that be a good thing?  
  
"Oh, it'd be easier to tell you what isn't wrong with it." Tej answered me.  
  
I got butterflies in my stomach at that comment. That couldn't be good. He was really going to test me. He snapped the cover off the car.  
  
If you could call it a car. It was a twisted mess of angry metal from the angle I was looking at it from. The front bumper was gone. The bumper supports were pushed into what would be the engine if the car wasn't a mid engine setup. The whole right fender was crumpled back and the right tire and all the associated parts were messed up beyond repair. The control arm was bent, the strut was no longer mounted to the pillar, and the axel was broken in half. The frame was bent, or at least it looked bent from where I was standing. The windshield was smashed in because the hood was through it.  
  
"What happened to it?" I breathed out softly as I started to walk around the wreck. I didn't even know what kind of car it was from the front it was so messed up. It looked sort of like Dom's RX-7 but not really. It had a roof scoop and the hood was longer. Or at least I thought it had been before it got all crumpled up into the windshield. The rear was definitely longer. The engine was in there after all.  
  
"I hit a wall at 120 in it. I never fixed it up since and now I don't race. But it's a nice car and it should be fixed." Tej looked sad.  
  
"'99 Acura NSX, yeah, I guess it is too nice to just sit around wrecked. But I mean, man, this might just be a write off. The frame's bent. You'll never be able to sell it without telling people it's been in an accident and I don't know if that frame'll pull out straight." I just wanted to be honest.  
  
"I don't want to sell it. I might not race but there was a time when this car was more important to me then anything else. I can't work on it myself. It'll just be..." He looked off into the lake out the back window for a minute. "It'll be too hard for me to work on it." I could tell what he meant from the look on his face. It'd be too scary for him and it would bring back too many bad memories. I couldn't have worked on the Civic that almost killed me not matter who asked me to or why.  
  
And the accident Tej was involved in had been a bad wreck. It must have a lot of bad memories for him. He seemed to shake it off mentally and then he looked back at me.  
  
"Plus it's fucked beyond repair. If you can get her back on the road then you'll be the best mechanic I ever met and you'll have a job here for as long as you want one."  
  
"Ok, but I don't do body work. You get me the panels I can put 'em on but I can't straighten the frame."  
  
"You'll have to gut the engine bay and remove the suspension in the front totally then we'll send it out to this body shop I know. They'll pull the frame, fix the body panels then send it back here and you can finish it up mechanically. While it's gone you'll be rebuilding the engine because it threw a rod and some other stuff in my wreck."  
  
"Shit, gut a mid engine. You know what they say, there's a first time for everything." I answered and blew a few wispy bangs off my forehead.  
  
"You never worked on one before?" Tej asked with a smile.  
  
"Worked on one, yes. Only a few times though. Pulled the engine out of one, no. You got the service manuals for this bad boy?"  
  
"Yeah. You think you can handle it?" Tej smirked. I knew in that second that he was sure I was going to say no and he wasn't upset about it. He wasn't sure about having me on as a mechanic.  
  
"Oh, I can handle it. How long you given me?"  
  
"Have the engine out by Thursday. The car'll be at the body shop for a week. I'd like the engine ready to go back in by the time it comes back. So the whole project in the two weeks I said I'd give you."  
  
"Aiight. But I get to design the paintjob if I have it done on time."  
  
"If you have it done on time then you can paint it pink if you want to."  
  
"Lucky for you I hate pink." I told him with a smug smile and started pulling wrecked parts off the car. I was gonna have the car ready in the two weeks. I wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction of failing.  
  
Suki had watched the whole conversation Tej and I had with interest. She thought I'd fail. She heard me make my ultimatum and she apparently was pissed about it because she stopped Tej on his way past her and I think I heard them fighting about it. She did the designing around here, or so she said to Tej in her little high pitched voice.  
  
Tej got her calmed down some how. Likely by telling her there was no way I was going to meet his deadline.  
  
I got it all jacked up and pulled the tires off. I started to remove the brakes in preparation for removing the suspension. Tej came back over to me. I must have been at it for an hour by that time and I was making good progress.  
  
"How's it goin?" He asked.  
  
"Good. One thing I was thinking about though."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Who's gonna order parts I need. Do I just make a list or do you know already?"  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
"I'd like to have creative control over it to be honest but I know that's likely asking too much."  
  
"You want to design the whole car? Like pick the new suspension and all that stuff?"  
  
"That's what I like but like I said, I'll understand if you don't trust that kind of stuff to someone you hardly know."  
  
"Naw, go nuts girl. Money's no object. Just have it ready in two weeks."  
  
"No problem." I answered, sounding very confident. It was confidence I didn't totally feel but in typical Letty fashion I bluffed it out. No one could know I was scared. I didn't know if I could get all the work the Acura needed done in two weeks or not. But I'd sure as hell give it my best.  
  
After all it was better then the oil and tires I thought I'd be doing. I mean, I was working on one of the hottest cars ever. Sure it was scary that it belonged to the boss, but it was still a hot car that I had just been given total control over building. I just wished that I wouldn't be doing it with Tej staring me down.  
  
I also saw a lot of long days in my future too. I wasn't going to have a lot of time for anything but work and sleep if I wanted to get it all done in two weeks. And I wanted that so bad.  
  
You know, I know I'm a good mechanic. And I know some people see it too. Brian for example. He always said I was good as it got, and better then him. But Dom never saw it that way. A lot of people didn't.  
  
Why?  
  
Cause I'm a woman doing a man's job. And in a lot of minds, men and women alike, I'll never be as good at it as a man would be. But I know in my heart that I'm just as good as those men and better then a lot of them. But I always have to work twice as hard as a man does to get the same amount of respect.  
  
Even Dom was always trying to give me 'easy' jobs to do because he doubted I could handle the hard stuff. I'd shown him time after time that I was just as good as Leon and Vince but it was never enough. No one was as good as Jesse but I was just as good as all the other guys but Dom didn't see it that way. I mean, I learned from his dad, just like he did. So why did he think he was a better mechanic then me other then he was a guy who'd learned from his dad and I was a girl who had. We had the same teacher; the only difference was our genders.  
  
Maybe he was just trying to make my life easier like Vince was always telling me when I'd get upset about it. But I never asked him to make my life easier.  
  
I guess I just thought that if I could take the Acura the way it was, and build it the way I knew it could be, and do it all myself that I could show Dom, Tej, Brian, Vince, and most importantly myself that I could do it and I could do it just as well as any guy could. Better. I don't even know if Dom could get the NSX done in two weeks.  
  
But it was going to take up my free time for the whole two weeks. I'd be pulling 16 hour days under an Acura.  
  
It was worth it.  
  
I decided to take pictures of it before I got any farther. I wanted to document the journey. No one would be able to take my accomplishment away from me then. I propped the tires back under it to pretend I hadn't done anything to it yet. Then I took pictures of it with the struts propped in place like they were still attached. Then I tossed them again and took pics of it with empty gaps in the fenders where the tires should be.  
  
And at that point it was time to try and figure how that 3.2L V6 was crammed into what should have been the back seat on any other 'normal' car and how the fuck it came out of there. The engine was essentially in the hatchback. And it looked like it was going to be hard as hell to get it out.  
  
I walked into the back room and got on the computerized service manual system.  
  
I pulled up the car and started to read.  
  
I must have spaced out for about two hours while I just read all the info in the system on the NSX engine. It was a lot to cover but I was going to need to know it all to get the engine out of the car.  
  
Brian came up behind me and tapped my shoulder.  
  
"Hey Letty, its 6 o'clock. Time to knock off for the night."  
  
"Not for me Bri, not yet. I'll be along in another hour or two. I need to finish reading this."  
  
"Reading what?"  
  
So Brian didn't know about Tej's little try out for me I guess.  
  
"How to get the engine out of an Acura NSX."  
  
"Why do you need to know that?" Brian asked and I could almost hear him thinking about what that meant.  
  
"So I can take the engine out of Tej's and rebuild it for him."  
  
"But that car is wrecked."  
  
"Yeah, and my audition for working here is to have it back on the road perfect in two weeks."  
  
"Letty, it'll never happen."  
  
"Yeah it will. I'll have to pull some long days but it'll be done."  
  
"It's not worth it Let. Let me talk to him. I can make him be more reasonable."  
  
"No Brian. I want to do it. I can do it and I think I need to do it too."  
  
"Two weeks of that kind of workload and you'll need a vacation already."  
  
"Maybe, but I'll deserve one too." I smiled up at him.  
  
Brian laughed.  
  
"That you will girl. That you will. Not that you don't already."  
  
"Thanks Bri. I'll see you soon." I turned back to the computer screen and listened as Brian left me alone with nothing but the computer screen for company. 


	20. Crazier then the White Boy

AN: This chapter is likely more R rated then pg-13. I don't want to change the rating on the whole story over it though so just concider this your warning people. I hope you all like and take a few seconds to hit the little review button and let me know what you think when you're done reading. It's exam time for me and the reviews give me a reason to live, LOL. Peace 'n speed, Tempest.  
  
Chapter 20 – Crazier then the white boy  
  
After I finished reading all there was to read my eyes were swimming and I had a bit of a headache. It had been a lot of information to process. I went back out into the garage and looked at Tej's car.  
  
What had I gotten myself into?  
  
Doubts about my ability to finish the project were resurfacing. It was going to be so much work. Did I have it in me? Would I be strong enough? Good enough? Fast enough?  
  
I couldn't afford not to be.  
  
Too much was riding on this car for me not to succeed.  
  
With that in mind as well as all the technical stuff I'd learned about the job I popped the rear hatch and started to look over the parts I could identify and what they had to do for the engine to come out of its tight quarters.  
  
I started removing this thing and unhooking that thing following the instructions I'd read on autopilot. Once something gets into my head I find it hard to stop. When I figure something out this excitement takes over because I know what I'm doing and I have to get started at whatever I just figured out right away. It might have something to do with not forgetting what I learned before I can use it. The engine in the Acura was no different.  
  
Never mind it was hours since I'd eaten and it was already dark outside.  
  
I was unhooking a cooling line and the pliers I was using to open the clamp slipped and cut my knuckles.  
  
"Cocksucker!" I yelped as I sucked on the knuckle that was bleeding most. I was under the assumption I was still alone.  
  
A male snicker answered my exclamation from the dark doorway of the garage.  
  
"Is that any way to talk to a lady?"  
  
Rome was still laughing as he walked into the circle of light in my bay from the otherwise dark garage.  
  
"Come again? A lady?" I turned to face him, still sucking on my bleeding finger between speaking to him.  
  
"Yeah, that fine lady you were bent over when you said that terrible thing to her."  
  
"I actually swore at the pliers, not the car."  
  
"That makes it all better then. What did you do to yourself?"  
  
"I cut up my knuckles. I'm fine."  
  
"Ok. Just let me see."  
  
He took my hand from me and looked. I sighed. He was as bad as Dom. Every little cut I get some man has to fuss over it. And when they cut themselves they curse and swear and rant and roar like the world is ending. A woman cuts herself and unless she's going to lose a digit or bleed out she just sucks it up and gets over it. Rome finished his inspection.  
  
"That's not so bad, but it'll hurt like hell tomorrow."  
  
"I know, it's not the first time I ever busted up my knuckles and it won't be the last."  
  
"It is always the fault of renegade tools?"  
  
"Naw, sometimes it's punching some puto or skank in their smirking mouth." I laughed, remembering some of the better fights of my life.  
  
Like the time I decked Lance Tran. Dropped him like a stone. Busted open my knuckles on his ugly mug too but it had been worth it. He'd been going to mess with my man. No one messed with my familia and got away with it. I wanted to see Dominic beat some sense into Johnny and I didn't need Lance coming to his idiot cousin's rescue.  
  
Or the time I walked into my room to find Dom on top of some blonde bitch from races fucking her brains out. First I threw a right hook into Dom's shocked, gasping face as hard as I could and split open his lip. Then I switched to the left hand and decked the blonde Barbie in our bed as hard as I could too. It wasn't as hard as my right but it had been hard enough to break her nose.  
  
Then I gathered up all her clothes and threw them out into the hall all the while yelling for her to 'get the fuck out of my bed and out of my room and if I ever see you around my man again you'll know real pain'. She ran into the bathroom to get dressed, crying like the whore she was the whole time. Vince had to drive her to the hospital and she got blood on the seat of Dom's car. Vince was smart enough not to take a bleeding idiot into his car. He said since Dom was the one who fucked up in the first place if anyone's car was going to get bloody it should be Dom's.  
  
Then Dom had the audacity to tell me to calm down. After catching him fucking another girl in our bed he had the nerve to tell me to calm down. He told me I was over reacting and that my shouting wasn't helping. So I figured if my shouting wasn't helping perhaps he wanted another knuckle sandwich. I forgot about my sore right hand and nailed him in the nose. His head's so hard that his nose didn't break. Thankfully I know how to make a solid fist so I didn't break any bones in my hand either. It musta hurt though 'cause he sat down so hard one of the legs on the bed broke.  
  
Or he had just been banging blondie so hard it was already weak. I thought that then too and it coloured my reply to Dom's request that I calm down.  
  
'I will not calm down when I catch you screwing another girl in our room' I'd yelled at him.  
  
'She didn't mean anything to me!' Dom had pleaded back.  
  
'Then why'd you have to fuck her then?' I'd asked, cradling my injured hand against my chest defensively.  
  
'I don't know.' He sighed, rubbing his bald head then daubing at the blood running down his chin from his busted lip. He never had an answer for that question.  
  
'I don't know isn't good enough!' I yelled back. 'How am I supposed to feel when you'll fuck any skank who'll spread her legs? I hate you!' I'd yelled back. I watched Dom turn red and open his mouth to say something back and I took off out of the room before he could say anything I didn't want to hear.  
  
I'd run to Mia, cried on her shoulder for hours as she held ice on my very bruised and swollen right hand, and hadn't spoken to Dom for a week. But then because we always did we made up. Rome spoke again and shook me out of my reminiscing.  
  
"Remind me to get on your good side."  
  
"You're already there; just make sure you don't do something to cross over."  
  
Rome laughed at me.  
  
"Brian sent me to find out if you were still working. He was worried about you still being at this. He's madder'n hell at Tej for doing this to you. I'm not sure if I like it either. You sure you wanna be doing this?"  
  
"Yeah, it's not so bad. I got a good start at it tonight. At least I have a plan of attack on it all now. I'll start ordering some of the front end stuff tomorrow so it'll all be here when the car comes back from the body shop."  
  
"Brian sent me up to ask you when you ate last and to tell you it's 9 and time you stopped for the night."  
  
"Wow its 9?" I'd had no idea that it had gotten so late. I arched my back into a deep stretch to try and work some of the kinks that having been bent over for the last 2 hours had put in. As I stood back upright my stomach growled loudly.  
  
"I guess the answer to when you ate last is a long time ago huh?" Rome asked, chuckling. "How do you stand it?"  
  
"Stand what?" I asked, sort of embarrassed about my stomach noises.  
  
"Going hungry. I can't go more'n an hour or two without eating."  
  
"If I ate like that I'd be as big as a house."  
  
"Not the way you work girl. No one that goes as hard as you could ever be as big as a house."  
  
"Well, I know it's supper time now, that's for sure. I guess I'll head down to Brian's and make some grub."  
  
"Or you could drive us to that little restaurant I showed you yesterday and we could eat there."  
  
"I get to drive?"  
  
"Yeah...Is that another first or somethin?"  
  
"Naw. It just doesn't happen very often unless I'm going places alone."  
  
"I've been waiting for a chance to get a ride in that pimped out car'a yours. This is as good a reason as any." Rome shrugged.  
  
"Aiight, let's go." Something occurred to me then. "Aw hell, I'll have to go home to change my clothes first." I was covered in grease and oil. I'd also be willing to bet that I had brake dust on my face somewhere. I was always rubbing my nose or itching my forehead with dirty hands.  
  
"You have a point." Rome answered. "Let's go, I'll walk with you."  
  
"Ok."  
  
We headed to the boat and walked in. I headed right to my room and Rome sat down at the table with Brian. I could still hear them talking while I changed.  
  
"She was still working wasn't she?" Brian asked, chuckling.  
  
"Yep. In her own world up to her elbows in the engine of the NSX. We're gonna go grab some grub and she's gonna show me what that car a hers can do."  
  
"Have fun. You might want her to show you what the car can do before you eat."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because if you think I'm a crazy driver you should see Reina go."  
  
I laughed out loud at that. I'd seen Brian go in the eclipse and the supra. I think it would be a close run who was really a more crazy driver. Who am I kidden? It'd be me. But maybe not by as much as Brian thinks. The guys heard me laughing and laughed back at me. I pulled on my tank top then ran into the bathroom. I cleaned all the black gunk off my face and headed back into the galley.  
  
"I'm ready."  
  
"Let's go then." Rome stood up.  
  
"I don't know...You sure you're ready for this?" I asked him with a smirk.  
  
"I'll be fine, let's go." Rome ushered me off the boat with a hand at the small of my back.  
  
We headed up to my car and I disarmed the security system and unlocked the doors. I slid into the car and took a deep breath. It felt like forever since I'd slid into the subtle caress of the driver's seat of my car. Like always it was like coming home. It conformed to my shape like a glove. The wheel fit my hands like it had been made for my fingers alone. The shift knob filled my palm perfectly. The reverse Indiglo gages lit up my face with a soft bath of blue light. The peddles were perfectly spaced for my feet.  
  
Feelings of familiarity washed over me. It was like being reacquainted with your best friend you hadn't seen in years. Rome had faded from my thoughts as I got reacquainted with my neglected lover. Raidon had been forgotten in the recent excitement but if I took him out to let him loose and showed Rome what we could really do together it would be along time before I would forget him again.  
  
"You ok?" Rome asked me softly.  
  
"Fine. Better then fine. Super." I rolled my shoulders. "You ready?"  
  
"Let's go."  
  
I pushed the clutch, flicked the key and the car turned over into an immediate roar that quickly steadied out into a soft, slightly louder then stock purr. I slid it into neutral, let off on the clutch and stepped on the brake then gave it a shot of gas quickly and listened as it revved up and dropped back to idle. The exhaust was loud and throaty at high RPM's, like the voice of a sexy man. My car called and I felt the answering response in my body, same as I always did and fought back a moan. The road called, like a siren, impossible to resist. The adrenaline was starting. Everything sounded perfect.  
  
Because it was perfect.  
  
I pushed the clutch down and slid the shift into first. The syncros engaged with a slight metallic chink. I double checked to be sure the road in front of the car was clear and, popping the clutch out as I gave the car a shot of gas I took off with a squeal from the Toyo's, a roar from the engine and a faint smell of burnt rubber and burning carbon from the exhaust.  
  
Rome grabbed the door handle and looked as me as my car mildly fishtailed down Tej's street. I smiled softly. This was what I lived for after all. I caressed the steering wheel with my thumbs. The well conditioned vinyl on the wheel practically stroked back. I fought my need to talk to my car out loud and managed to internalize my feelings of 'missed you baby boy'.  
  
Yep, I talk to my car. I talk to it like it was a lover. Because it was.  
  
Anyone who's ever had a real adrenaline rush behind the wheel knows what I'm talking about.  
  
First your stomach gets butterflies. That happens to me the second I know I'm going to get to drive fast or race someone.  
  
Then your palms get a bit sweaty and your face flushes. This often happens as I'm waiting for a red light to go green so I can race the punk who's been revving his little Honda at me for the duration of the red light's appearance.  
  
The light goes green and you take off. Then your breathing goes up, gets faster, deeper.  
  
The butterflies become hot rushes of sensation from your solar plexus outward to other, more interesting areas. Things get tingly. Desire results.  
  
Sometimes your nipples get hard, you get wet. But it's not really sex you want.  
  
You're feeling desire for the win, desire for the speed, for the rush, for the danger.  
  
For the adrenaline.  
  
And while you're still high on adrenaline and turned on from the rush, that's when you can have some of the best sex of your life. I should know.  
  
I put my mind back on track and saw my off ramp coming up. I wonder if Rome, in his front wheel drive waste of sheet metal has ever done true drifting. I bet not. I'll never tell him how I feel about his car to his face but having been raised by a stock car racer and schooled on the streets by his son I'll never be passionate about a car unless it's a 6 or better, plants the power with the rear wheels, and was never made to be the family grocery getter in any sense.  
  
I decided to drift the ramp. It'll give him a thrill I bet. Hell, it'll give me one too.  
  
I speed up subtly and start to cut the wheel to take the ramp. It's rated for 30 miles an hour. I'm going 70. It's not quite enough so I give my car a bit more throttle and the wheels start to break loose in the rear.  
  
Rome looked over at me at that point like he was trying to figure out what I was up to. It was clear he'd never been in the car when someone pulled a stunt like I was about to.  
  
With a bit more throttle and a bit more cut to the wheels the rear breaks loose and goes sideways down the off ramp just the way I want it to. I'm in total control of the slide but it feels out of control and it makes a horrible noise as the tires go sideways against their will and smoke as we fly down the ramp sideways.  
  
When we hit the new street I straightened out the wheels and eased off the gas. The car when straight and I laughed with the sheer joy of it all. The freedom and the adrenaline, the excitement and exhilaration.  
  
I did a few power slides and raced a few punks in traffic and then before I knew it we were back at the little restaurant Rome had taken me to only the day before.  
  
"That was some crazy ass shit you did on the way here girl. Where'd you learn to drive like that?"  
  
"Here an there. You have fun?"  
  
"Once my testicles redescended it was ok."  
  
I looked up at Rome. He looked serious. I chuckled.  
  
"Does that mean I can't be wilder on the way home?"  
  
"Save it for races." Rome looked sort of green when I really looked.  
  
"You ok?"  
  
"I'm fine."  
  
"You don't look 'fine'."  
  
"You drive crazier then the white boy."  
  
I laughed.  
  
"Well, he did warn you about that."  
  
"Thought he was exaggerating." Rome mumbled.  
  
"Come on, let's go eat." I stood up out of the car and slammed the door, walking around to meet Rome on his side, by the restaurant door.  
  
"I'm not sure if I'm hungry anymore."  
  
"Oh dear, this is serious." I tried to look genuinely concerned for Rome's poor stomach.  
  
He finally laughed.  
  
"Turns out I'm hungry, let's go in and eat."  
  
"That's better." I pushed the door open and we walked in.  
  
The same elderly lady was manning the front counter. When she saw Rome her eyes lit up. She welcomed him warmly and turned to me.  
  
"Ah, the pretty Senorita from before." She said in her heavily accented voice and took my hand. "Él debe tener gusto de usted grandemente de traerle aquí otra vez." (He must like you greatly to bring you here again.)  
  
"Somos amigos justos." (We're just friends) I assured her with a smile. She didn't look like she believed me but she lead us to a table.  
  
We sat down and picked up the menus the older woman had left. I started to read. I was hungry enough to eat a horse and everything sounded good.  
  
"What's that say?" Rome asked me, pointing out a line on the menu he didn't understand.  
  
I explained it to him and he closed the menu. I guess his mind was made up on what he was having. I couldn't decide between two things that sounded really good. I decided to order both. It wasn't like Rome wouldn't help me eat it all if I got full.  
  
The lady came back and I ordered all the food I wanted. Rome looked at me funny.  
  
"You gonna eat all that?"  
  
"You're not the only one with a big appetite." I leaned back in my chair, tossing one arm over the back of it.  
  
"You think you're gonna finish all that?" Rome looked hopeful that the answer would be no.  
  
"Maybe, maybe not. If I can't you'll be the first one to know."  
  
"Deal."  
  
"So, Rome. You grew up with Brian huh?"  
  
"Well, we didn't do much growing up. But we've known each other since we were five. I grew up down the street from Brian's family."  
  
I smiled about the fact that he 'hadn't done too much growing up'. Sounded like two guys I know. Namely V and Dom.  
  
"You have any brothers or sisters?" I asked Rome, wanting to know more about him, about his history with Brian.  
  
"One of each, both older. You?"  
  
"I'm an only child. My parents didn't stop fighting long enough to have any more. What about Brian?"  
  
"Brian has one younger sister. She's still in Barstow."  
  
"So how old are you and Bri?"  
  
"25, how old are you?"  
  
"22. Does Brian ever talk to his sister?"  
  
"Yeah. She comes down to visit him every once in a while. Well, she does now that she's 18. Brian's parents didn't take too well to what he did with you guys. His dad's a cop and what Brian did for Dom made his dad pretty mad. Something about cops being a brotherhood and how now Brian wasn't trustworthy, how he betrayed every other cop in the world by doing what he did. They don't talk anymore and his father forbid his sister from having anything to do with Brian. But she didn't listen very well as soon as she was old enough to go without permission."  
  
"Wow." I didn't know what to say. Brian had always avoided talking to me about his family back when he was with us in L.A. Now I guess I know why. His dad was strict and a cop on top of it. So Brian had lost even more then I'd thought when he'd let us go. He lost us and he lost his job and he lost his family. It's even more clear to me that Brian needs to go back to L.A. He might not have much of a relationship with his father but he can have his relationship with the team back again. Then we can be his family. The team is my family after all.  
  
"Yeah. Brian idolized his dad. It hit him pretty hard when his dad told him he didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore."  
  
"Didn't it get better when Brian redeemed himself and you and he became cops again?"  
  
"I don't know that Brian bothered to tell him about that. They hadn't been talking for a while before that."  
  
"Poor Brian. Well, I guess at least his sister didn't let her dad poison her against him."  
  
"Yeah Fiona makes up her own mind. She's a female version of Brian. Brilliant blue eyes, golden hair, golden skin, and fit. She's one cool girl."  
  
"She sounds awesome."  
  
"She is. If you stick around long enough you'll meet her. She visits Bri every 6 months or less and she's almost due to come again."  
  
"She doesn't know why Brian's not a cop anymore does she?" I couldn't see Brian's sister being very impressed with one of the people who caused her brother to not be a cop anymore. Of course I didn't really know how much of the story Rome knew either but I guess he knows a lot more of it now if he didn't know before.  
  
"No, but I only have half an idea about that too." Rome gave me a very deep look.  
  
"Well, it all started about 9 months ago." I was going to tell Rome everything. I don't know why. I thought he could keep the secret and I needed to really talk about it. Plus, he knows it's all over and closed because of he and Brian doing that other job so I doubt he'll bring it up with anyone.  
  
"We were short on money. We were always short on money. You've seen my car. It's pretty tricked out."  
  
"You got that right."  
  
"Well, my car is an example of how every car on our team is. They're all that tricked out. Dom's more then anyone's. Plus, Dom thinks that the stuff has to be upgraded all the time. And Mia's going through college to be a doctor and that isn't cheap."  
  
"So your team had a lot of bills?"  
  
"Yeah. But Dom owns his garage plus a café and he does good racing. I don't know where the people willing to try and race him come from because you'd think by now most people would have had their fill of the humiliation him beating them week after week deals but there's still someone who wants a shot every race night. But with all the stuff he wanted for all the cars plus the taxes on the two stores and the house, and Mia's school and food and bills we were hardly getting by."  
  
"Fast cars are an expensive hobby." Rome added.  
  
"No kidding. But Dom," I lowered my voice, "decided rather then trying to live within our means we'd do this job that someone offered him. The payoff was huge and Dom said it wouldn't even be hard. He bought three Honda Civics and we tricked them out. Painted them black and put green neon kits on them. We used the cars to hijack transfer trucks full of high priced electronics. Then Dom's contact would sell the goods on the black market. We did like 6 and nothing ever went wrong. Me'n Jesse were just there to keep the truck driver guessing and going the way we wanted him to. Leon listens to the scanners. He has all this equipment in his skyline for it and he outfitted his Civic with all the same stuff. He always has the police frequencies. Dom drove the lead car and Vince jumped onto the truck to get in and tranqu the driver. Then V would drive the truck to the drop point where we'd get our money and turn over the rig."  
  
"Wow. Like a modern day western." Rome was listening raptly to the tale. Our dinner was dropped off and I started to eat, telling the story between mouthfuls of food.  
  
"But the it didn't take that long before the truckers got together and decided the LAPD better do something about it. The brought Brian in, I guess from what I know now he was a hotshot cop and was pushing for detective. He was young and his superiors didn't know about promoting him. But he also knew a bit about cars and he was young enough to look the part. So they sent him undercover working for Harry at 'The Racer's Edge', the store where everyone in the street racing world shops. The cops thought it had to be street racers doing it because the Civics had Mashamoto ZX tires. Like no one but a street racer ever bought those." I rolled my eyes and shook my head at the stupidity of the cops.  
  
"But anyway, turns out they were right. Brian knew that if anyone knew who was doing it in the street racing world it was Dominic, so he set out to get close to Dom and us. He started hanging out around Mia, then raced Dom. I think Brian knew it was us longer then he let on because he didn't want to believe it. He was in love with Mia and just liked everyone else too much to want to think we could be doing what we were. So he gave Dom his car keys after the last race they had were Dom wrecked his dad's charger and let Dom take off. Then Brian went on the run and somehow worked it out that the heat was off the rest of us."  
  
"But then he pulled the Verone job with me and now it's all good." Rome was clearly trying to cheer me up.  
  
"But it's not 'all good'. Before I left I had to hear Mia cry herself to sleep most nights both for bringing Brian around in the first place and for loosing him even though she knew she should hate him. I had to see how much Brian's betrayal had hurt Dom after Dom had believed Brian when Brian said he wasn't a cop. I had to see how upset Vince was while he tried to recover from all his wounds from the gunshot he suffered on the last job and where the cable he used to jump onto the truck nearly cut his arm off. I had to watch Jesse almost die then recover from 3 gunshot wounds from Johnny Tran. I had to see Leon almost have a mental breakdown over what happened to Jess. I had to try and be the strong one to hold it all together but the whole time there was no one to hold it together for me."  
  
"I didn't mean to imply that things weren't hard." Rome broke in.  
  
"I know. But now I'm here and I find Brian, quite by accident and find out things aren't fine here either. Brian's upset about everything, he misses Dom and Mia, he wonders about Vince and Jesse, he's not the kind of cop he always wanted to be because of helping us. And then you tell me that his father disowned him over what he did for us. Then I find out that I might meet his sister, who knows her brother isn't a cop because of something he did but not exactly what so the whole time I'm around her I'll have to walk on eggshells but she'll likely find out anyway and then she'll hate me and I won't be able to blame her."  
  
"She won't hate you Letty." Rome finished his own meal and moved on to helping me eat mine.  
  
"If someone was the reason your older brother lost a job he loved and was disowned from your family would you be in love with them?"  
  
Rome made a face.  
  
"If she finds out, and that's a big if, she might be mad at you at first. But it's not even like it was your idea. You said it was Dom's."  
  
"Yeah, but no one made the rest of us follow him into it. We call coulda said no."  
  
"But he likely would have done it anyway."  
  
"Yeah, he's pretty stubborn."  
  
"Just like someone else I know."  
  
"Like who?" I asked, thinking he was hinting at me being stubborn."  
  
"Brian. Even if you had told him to let you all go to jail if he thought he wanted to let you go he would have."  
  
"I guess. And well..." Did I want to go there?"  
  
"Well what girl?" I think he could tell it wouldn't be good from the look on my face.  
  
"Well, Dom always says, and I'm sure he told Brian, that he'd die before he went back to jail. He did two years for assaulting the guy who caused his dads fatal crash. I know what Dom means when he says that and I figure Brian did too. If the cops came for Dom he'd either get away or make them kill him to take him down. Dom never would have gone calmly back to jail."  
  
"Well, knowing that would make sure Brian didn't send him back to jail then. Brian likes Dom, he still does. Like I told you he wanted to get Dom to do the Verone thing with him but he was too scared."  
  
"I guess. Well, I just hope it all works out in the end. I want to see Brian happy. Mia too."  
  
"Well, don't sweat Fiona. She's really nice. She'd likely be so upset about you feeling the need to run halfway across the country that she'd forgive you for everything else right off the bat."  
  
"I hope so."  
  
We finished up and I paid the bill this time. I insisted. Rome let me but he wasn't happy about it. Then we got back in the car and headed home. I took it easy on Rome on the way home since he'd eaten so much and my driving can be a little hard to take. I only raced the one guy and that was only because I wasn't going to let him get away with revving his engine at me.  
  
When we got back I used the transmitter for the garage door that Brian had given me to park my car inside where it was safe and then I headed out for the boat.  
  
"You wanna come up to the house for awhile?" Rome asked. "They'll be watching some sort of movie if you wanna hang out for awhile."  
  
"Naw, I gotta get an early nights sleep. I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow and it starts early."  
  
"Ok girl, see you tomorrow."  
  
"Yeah, good night."  
  
I walked home and Brian wasn't around. He must have gone up to Tej's. I hope he wasn't saying anything about the project. I want to do it and I don't want Brian saying anything about it. I can handle it and if it turns out I can't then at least I'll have done my best.  
  
I was asleep the second my head touched the pillow. 


	21. The Real You

Chapter 21 – The Real You  
  
Oh man, 7 am comes early when you didn't go to bed till 12 am. When my alarm went off I wanted to cry. I was stiff from being bent over the rear hatch of the Acura for so much of yesterday. Not to mention my knuckle hurt like a mother fucker.  
  
With a groan I silenced the alarm and snuck into the bathroom. I didn't know when Brian had gotten back but I'd be willing to bet this was going to be one of those days that he didn't get started at Tej's till late. I hadn't heard him come home and he wasn't making any noise now.  
  
I wanted to be up there working by 8 so I had to get a move on. After a quick shower I chucked on a pair of boxers, realizing they were Dom's after I had them on and decided it wasn't worth changing over, than I added a pair of stained shop cargos and a similarly marked wife beater. I stopped in the kitchen long enough to have a bowl of lucky charms and then I was off to the garage.  
  
I used the key that Brian had made sure I got for the side door to get into the garage and headed to what I had dubbed my exam car. Damn thing hadn't fixed itself over night either. I'd had such high hopes for that happening. I set about removing the rear glass first so it wouldn't get broken by mistake and then went back to prepping the engine for removal. I was making a mental list of what I had to order as I went. I really hope Tej has as much money as he seems to because this thing needs a lot of parts and parts for this car aren't cheap.  
  
I looked it up and an engine for the car costs 40,000 to buy new. The pistons are worth close to a thousand bucks each. You know, I think in this car I could beat Dom. When I'm done with it it'll be better then it ever was and fast enough to snap necks when it leaves the line. But its gonna cost Tej quite a bit to get it that way. Since he told me to go nuts I'm going to. I'm ordering the best of everything and doing this car up with one intent, to kill on the street and track. It'll be pretty close to untouchable. I bet Brian's skyline might keep up with it for a while but in the end this Acura would be able to edge him out.  
  
I really want to design the paint job so bad. That's another reason why I really want to get the car done. I get to design the paint if I finish it. It'll be my most ambitious design yet if I get to do it. You know, I use to think all the time that I'd love to go back to school and learn body work? Dom would never hear of it of course. He had lots of reasons, all bull shit and all not fair.  
  
He needed me there as a mechanic. We hardly got all the work done as it was, let alone if I left for a year to go to school. We didn't have the money. Mia's school already cost too much. I loved being a mechanic and why would I want to change it?  
  
He didn't seem to get the fact that I could be both a mechanic and do auto body repair. And he didn't seem to care it was what I wanted to do. But of course Mia had to do what she wanted to do. Heaven forbid the perfect little sister didn't get all the opportunities. And that's not even really fair. Dom did dote on Mia more then he did on me, but he'd pretty much forced her to go his way.  
  
Med school wasn't even what she wanted to do. It was what Dom wanted her to do. And she was smart enough for med school. And she even liked helping people and so I think she'll do ok as a doctor. But she felt forced into it too. She didn't ultimately want to do it. It was what Dom wanted for her. And Mia, unlike myself, pretty much always does what Dom wants to avoid the inevitable fights they'll have if she doesn't.  
  
Mia wanted to be a fashion designer. She's got a great sense of style. She was forever trying to get me to dress more fashionably. Poor girl just didn't get the fact that I really didn't care what I looked like most of the time. All I wanted was to have Dom's attention and be comfortable. Mia wanted to look like she belonged in 'Vogue' more often then not. She succeeded most of the time.  
  
Dom just does what he thinks is good for us. I know that. But we know what's good for us too. We don't really need him to decide for us all the time. But he mostly gets his way and as such Mia's in med school and I'm just a mechanic. But you know, I could change that while I'm out here. I could try to get into a body work school out here. Dom's not here to say anything.  
  
I wonder how Jesse's doing at home without me. I finally convinced him to get into adult education classes on his computer to try and get his GED. He's too smart to go around thinking he's stupid just because he dropped out of high school. If he had his GED at least it might make him feel better. Might convince him finally he's not stupid. He knows he's good at engines and math and he thinks that's it.  
  
I think if he has the time and the right person to help him he can pass his English and Science too. But he didn't want anyone to know he was trying so it was just me and him. I was helping him in the evenings. But now I'm not around.  
  
Poor Jesse. He's such a good kid. He's been through a lot and I don't even know about all of it. I know about more of it then the rest of the team though. Except Leon. Leon and Jesse tell each other everything. But Jesse and I got close too. I'm sort of surprised that he didn't latch onto Mia, since she's like the mother figure of the team and I think that's what Jesse was looking for. But maybe a tough older sister suited him better.  
  
It scares me to note he's older then I am. I claim that mental years count and say I'm the older one but based on year of birth he's 23 and I'm 22 so he's older. I know that Jesse has a job doing what he loves for Dom so he doesn't really need to go to school to prove anything to us, but I think he has to prove it to himself more then anything. Maybe he'll tell Leon what he's up to and get Leon to help him. I hope so.  
  
I went to get the cherry picker to lift the engine at that point because I was about ready to remove the motor mounts.  
  
I hooked up the engine chain to support the weight of the motor and then jacked up the transmission to hold it in place. I crawled under the car and started to unbolt the engine from the transmission in preparation to yank the engine out of the car.  
  
Then I stood up again and just started unhooking things again. It was sort of boring but it had to be done.  
  
About an hour later I stood up and stretched. I checked the clock and it was 9am. I wondered where everyone was. I figured they'd all be in by 9. That's why I'd shown up so early. I wanted to get a start on the car while I was with it alone. Well, I guess Rome did say that sometime if they had late nights they didn't start work right at 9.  
  
I'm kind of happy about that anyway because it gives me more time to just work at this alone. I work better alone. I can talk things out to myself and listen to my own music as loud as I want. But I needed a quick Pepsi break. I stopped working and walked back to the cooler Tej kept stocked for us in the back.  
  
I grabbed the bottle of cola, twisted the cap off and started to chug it. I contemplated the ugly paintjob on what was left of the Acura as I stood there. It was hideous. It was brown and yellow and it had little things all over the brown parts in the same yellow as the rest of it. I know I'm not doing the ugliness justice so you'll just have to take my word for it. But ugly didn't begin to explain how hideous this car was. I wondered if it was a Suki design cattily. Such a nice car, but done up so ugly. I have a few ideas kickin around in my head for how it'll look when I get to design it. And I will get to.  
  
I chugged down the last of my drink and got back to work. I got the engine out of the car inside another hour and half then mounted it on a stand. Then I started to clean up the engine compartment. I got lost into my world of music and engines, full of touches and sounds.  
  
Around lunch time the others started to flow in. I was under the car at the time trying to get something free. I don't think they knew I was under the car.  
  
"Holy shit, she got the engine out." Tej stated.  
  
"So?" Rome asked.  
  
"She's already farther along then I thought she would be and she's going a lot faster then I thought she would too." Tej continued.  
  
"Wonder if that's why she's not here." Suki said, and I could hear the sneer in her voice.  
  
"I told you my Reina was the shit Tej, and you doubted me." Brian added. I could hear the almost paternal look of pride that would be on his face. It was nice to be something someone was proud of for once. "And damn Suki, she left to come up here at like 7:30. If she takes a lunch break she definitely deserves one."  
  
"She's gonna have the car done on time at this rate." I wasn't sure if Tej sounded happy about that.  
  
I realized I was in a bit of a bind. They'd been talking about me and only Brian and Rome hadn't said anything they wouldn't want me to hear. The other two were liable to be mad I'd just listened to them speak without letting on I was still there. I had to let them know I was still there but somehow make them think I hadn't heard anything else they'd said.  
  
I didn't want to look too hard at why I wanted to keep quiet. It was sort of cowardly after all. There was one time that I would have just rolled out from under that car and started talking trash about how dare they say things about me, implying I wasn't as good a mechanic as I let on. I'd have wanted to know what the fuck their problem with me was back in L.A. But for some reason I didn't want them to know I'd heard their slurs. Didn't want them to know they'd managed to hurt my feelings. I'm out of my element here and it's colouring how I react to situations. I don't like it. Plus I'm relying on Tej for a job and to catch races.  
  
I figured it out after a moment of thinking on it. I yawned loudly, stretched so that my arm showed out from under the car and then rolled out with what I hoped was a sleepy look in my eyes.  
  
I really do wonder what the hell the problem is. It was sort of obvious that Tej and Suki had one. Not Brian or Rome obviously, and Jimmy was pretty indifferent. I sure wasn't use to having my mechanical skills doubted.  
  
"Hey guys. I musta fallen asleep for a few there once I'd gotten that mount free finally." I said, holding up the offending piece of the car in my left hand. "You guys been here long?"  
  
Suki and Tej looked incredibly relieved when they thought I didn't hear them. Brian came up to me and gave me a quick hug, leaving his arm draped over my shoulders.  
  
"Girl, you don't need to be up here this early. You're ahead of schedule."  
  
"I know. You know me Bri, I have to keep busy."  
  
"True, true. Just remember there are other things to do in Miami that don't involve working yourself to death."  
  
"It's only for two weeks. I'll be fine. But I'm gonna go get some lunch. Anyone want anything?"  
  
A chorus of 'I'm fines' went up around the room. Then Rome answered.  
  
"I could eat."  
  
Everyone laughed because Rome could always eat.  
  
"That's cool. You can show me where else is good to eat in this town."  
  
"Deal. Let's go. We taken your car?" Rome looked a bit green.  
  
"If you don't mind." I answered and headed for the door.  
  
"Of course not." Rome answered. I could tell he was forcing indifference. I found that really funny for some reason. I'd scared big bad Rome with my driving. That was sort of funny wasn't it? Brian had told me he use to do crash derbies but I'd managed to scare him with my driving.  
  
"Ok, let's go then." If he wanted to play the big tough guy then I'd let him.  
  
We drove to another restaurant he knew of and I did my best to make him freak out and tell me to slow down or stop acting crazy but he never did. He just sat in his seat clearly scared and sucked it up. No matter how hard I pushed he wouldn't crack. My respect for him went up a few notches.  
  
We ate, chatted about nothing for the first age. Then on the way back Rome looked at me.  
  
"Why'd you let on you been asleep through Tej and Suki talking about you?"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"I know you were awake the whole time. Why'd you let them think you didn't hear them?"  
  
"How'd you know I was awake?"  
  
"The look in your eyes when you stood up from under the car. I could tell you heard the whole thing."  
  
That was scary. No one knows me that well. This guy's known me for all of a week or so but he already knows when I'm hiding stuff. Dom doesn't know when I'm hiding stuff half the time. I find it hard to lie to Dom but easy to hide stuff from him. Rome knew already that I'd been pretending and I'd thought I'd done a good job of hiding it.  
  
"I guess I just didn't want to get in a big fight with them."  
  
"But that's not your style."  
  
"How would you know?" I asked a bit defensively.  
  
I was a bit on edge to find out there was someone who could see right through me. How was I supposed to hide when I was hurting if Rome would always know? No one was supposed to know when I was putting on a tough act. Everyone was supposed to think I was just tough. They weren't supposed to know half the time it was just an act.  
  
"Because Brian talked about you so much. I mean he never came right out and told me who he was talking about. He always just said a girl from L.A. But I could tell when he was talking about Mia and when it was you. You're the girl who never backs down. I don't think you know how much Brian admires you. He was always talking about how you never stepped back, never let things get out of your control. How you always knew what you wanted and how you wanted it and just went out and got it."  
  
"But everything got out of my control. I had no control. It was all a big act. Something I had to keep up for appearances. I tried to hold on to the threads but they all slipped through my fingers. I tried to keep everyone safe and I couldn't. I tried to keep it together and I couldn't. I failed at it so bad. That's why I didn't say anything. I can't fail here too and if I start mouthing off I'm going to because I'm not going to get the job here and I'm not going to get to race. It's not my style but my style wasn't working out so well for me anyway."  
  
"Your style is your style girl. You shouldn't try to change it for Tej, not for anyone. I mean, Brian's a pretty good judge of character. He had to be to make a good cop. And he liked you the way you were. He admired you. And you shouldn't be taking shit all of a sudden just for Tej. He'd get over it if you stood up for yourself."  
  
"I guess. I'm just so unsure of myself here and I don't like it at all." I don't know why I felt the need to talk to Rome, to confess this stuff to him. I'd never had anyone but Mia I could admit weaknesses to before. I always had to be the girl who didn't have any discernible weaknesses.  
  
It has a lot to do with how I was as a kid and a lot to do with how things were with Dom. I was scared if people knew I had weaknesses they'd know how to hurt me and I couldn't have that. I had to have the walls to protect me. I know that those very walls are why so many people think I'm the world's biggest bitch. But I'd rather be a bitch then have people know just how weak I am inside.  
  
"You're new here girl. It's ok to be unsure about how you fit in here. It'll be obvious how you fit in with us in a little while. It's gotta work itself out on its own. But how's it gonna do that if you try to be something you're not to fit in? You'll fit in the way you really are but if you let us get to know a fake you then you'll fit in but you won't because it won't be the real you who we all got to know. Everyone will like the real you, you don't have to put on an act. Hell, you already got Brian wrapped around your little finger and you're half way there with me too." Rome admitted with a smirk.  
  
"Really?" I asked Rome with the same sarcastic tone I'd used on Dom when he'd told me he'd had a dream about me and him on a beach in Mexico. That dream had never materialized and I think this line that Rome's feeding me about being in the palm of my hand is a big line of bull too.  
  
"Yeah. You're the coolest girl I know other then Suki."  
  
"Now you're just trying to make me feel better."  
  
"Well, it's true and I'm trying to make you feel better. Is it working?"  
  
"Yeah." I admitted with a reluctant smile.  
  
We arrived back at the garage and headed in. I stopped Rome at the door.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"No problem. Remember, no more pretending to be something you're not. You're not Mary sunshine so don't front on it."  
  
"Aiight, but I hope you know what you're asking for." 


	22. The Tough Girl

AN: Why can't I write a chapter of this story shorter then 3500 words? I can no longer feel my hands after prepairing an equally long update of RIDE and a 17 page update of Adrenaline. So make it worth my while and review please. I can't really type anymore but I can still mouse ;)  
  
Chapter 22 – The Tough Girl  
  
No more being something I'm not eh? Does that mean I get to put little miss bitchy in her place next time she pisses me off?  
  
Oh, even better. I'll put her in her place in Spanish so she can know I've understood everything she's ever said. She should be unpleasantly shocked. The thoughts of it make me smile. Ah to put her in her place. What fun it will be.  
  
Like the time I heard these two girls at school in the bathroom talking about taking my man. It was so fun to walk out of the stall and look them in their scared blue eyes as one stammered and the other tried to look tough.  
  
They hadn't known I was there and once they did know the conversation stopped really fast. I walked up to the sink to wash my hands and they just looked at me like frightened little rabbits. As I was drying my hands off I looked at them again.  
  
"Don't you have something to say to me?" I'd asked them with my typical 'I don't give a shit' attitude.  
  
"Like what?" The bimbo trying to front like she was tough too had asked. Her friend just sort of cowered behind her.  
  
"Like wouldn't you just love to break it down for me how you can take MY man from me? I mean, that is what you just said you and your whore friend could do right?"  
  
"That's right." Tough bitch was keeping up the act. Good for her. I knew it would make it all the more fun when I got to make her grovel at my feet for me to leave her alone.  
  
"I'll tell ya what. You and your friend can beat me up I'll give him to you." I answered her with a smirk. "If you both can beat me then I'll step back and push him your way. If I win you leave me'n him alone and stay away from races and his shop."  
  
The skanks looked at each other like they didn't know if it was a trick or what that I said I would give him up if they could just beat me at a two on one fight in the ladies room. Never mind how many times I'd already been in shit for fighting on school property. With a look the two girls decided it would be worth a shot. I knew the only one who really wanted to go was the loudmouth one. The one who'd been all talk till she found out I was in the bathroom didn't want to fight me any more then she wanted to eat her teeth.  
  
She should have thought of that before she let her idiot, bitchy friend talk for her. Because once they talked trash at me it was decided that they were leaving the bathroom with their perfect makeup rubbed off on the floor and their perfectly blonde hair stained red with blood from the hurt I was going to send their way.  
  
"So, which one of you bitches wants to step first?" I'd asked them with a shit eating grin. I was never scared before or during a fight. Sometimes when it occurred to me how bad I could have gotten hurt I'd shake for a while after. Like the time I fought this huge dude in the back hallway of a club I was at. But that's another story.  
  
'Tough chick' came at me. It was kind of comical because she clearly planned on slapping and clawing me to death. I don't bitch fight, I fight dirty. This girl planned on using her nails and no doubt pulling hair. It hadn't seemed to occur to her that my hair was tied up in a very sensible pony tail because I was going to work for Van after school and it had just been easier to chuck it up when I'd gotten out of the shower.  
  
"I'm going to mess you up!" The blonde had yelled at me as she came at me, claws bared.  
  
I dodged her and punched her in the gut. She doubled over in mostly shock I think, but a bit of pain too. Her friend discovered some balls and came at me then.  
  
I sighed then. I really did. Her friend was another bitch slapin', face clawing, hair pulling pussy. They were hardly a challenge for a girl like me who was use to fighting the tough skanks we had around races and guys.  
  
Some of those girls have been around and they can really fight. These girls had no clue.  
  
I bopped the second one in the nose and she stopped in shock. Then the other one got back up and came at me again. So I decked her in the mouth.  
  
The sissy one actually managed to scratch the side of my face at that point. I know it was my own stupid fault for thinking she was no threat. Anyone with fake bitch nails is always a threat in some sense. But I was so pissed she'd scratched me that I through a really hard punch into her face and blackened her eye really good. It started to swell almost immediately.  
  
She started to cry, likely over how bad her face was going to look by that evening. Her friend came at me again. I ducked her pathetic attempt at punching me in the mouth and punched her in hers instead.  
  
Like that made her mad she came at me even more ferociously. Bitch actually punched me in the face. She missed my nose and eye and some ring on her stupid hand cut my cheek. Then I was mad.  
  
I rammed into her, took her down, sat on her chest and just started pummelling her. Her stupid friend tried to pull me off so I knocked her down and wailed on her for awhile.  
  
The first girl somehow managed to get up and she kicked me in the ribs. It hurt like a son of a bitch. But I'm a lot like Dom when I fight too. The pain doesn't set in till later, at first the adrenaline just makes me want to fight and fight till I get put down for good or I win. I grabbed her leg and yanked. She fell backwards and hit her head off the concrete floor of the bathroom.  
  
She got knocked out when she hit the floor. That scared me. I mean, I'd known I was gonna mess them up but I'd never planned on really hurting them.  
  
In my shock of knocking the other bitch out, even if it was by accident I took my attention off the sissy girl. She'd been no trouble to take care of up till then but I think the fact her bitch friend wasn't moving scared some adrenaline into her. She managed to roll us over so she was sitting on me. Then she slapped me hard on my already cut cheek.  
  
Pissed me right off. I threw her off me and go up faster then her. I kicked her in the head and cut her scalp. I'd predicted there'd be blood in that blonde hair at some point and I was right.  
  
She came at me again and we locked up in the middle of the bathroom. We were still grappling for hold when some other chick came in to use the john. She saw one girl out cold on the floor and the two of us bleeding on each other and ran away. I thought she was just going to use another john but she came back with the big dykie gym teacher.  
  
Ms Campbell pulled me and sissy girl apart and let us know with a look that any more fighting would not be a good idea. Then she went to check bigmouth girl. She was fine, just stunned but I knew I was in for it.  
  
No matter what those two other girls had done to deserve what I'd done to them I was going to be the one in the most trouble. I was always fighting and I was hardly hurt while the other two were bruised and broken.  
  
We were marched down to Principal Marks' office by Ms. Campbell and sat on opposite sides of the anteroom in hard plastic chairs. I crossed my arms and stared the other two down till they both looked away.  
  
"You know what this means right?" I asked as soon as the gym teacher had gone back to ogling the running female students in her class and we were alone waiting for Mr. Marks to make an appearance.  
  
The bigmouth looked at me but sissy girl just kept her eyes trained on the ground.  
  
"What?" She asked me snottily.  
  
"You stay the fuck away from Dom. I handed your ass to you and I'll do it again if you come anywhere near my man."  
  
"I wouldn't really want a man whore like him anyway." Miss bitch answered in her most stuck up tone.  
  
"Yeah, that's why you were going on about how much you wanted to be wit him and how big you think he is where it counts when you thought I wasn't in the room. Why you frontin? You know you want him, you know you can't have him and now you know if you even try to have him I'll hand your ass to you again. You and your whore friend aren't gonna be winnin' no beauty pageants any time soon anyways."  
  
"I don't know what Dominic sees in you anyway Letty Rodriguez. You're more guy then girl anyway." The skank sneered at me, I don't know where she found the guts to do it, and looked me up and down like she found me wanting.  
  
"You wanna come say that to my face?" I asked as I stood up. "Chinga tu madre asquerosa!" (Fuck your mother asshole) I made a gesture with my hand from under my chin in a menacing way. Blondie got a scared look in her eyes. Mr. Marks picked that moment to come out of his office. He had me sit back down with one cold look out of his ice blue eyes. I knew he'd heard me swear. And since he taught Spanish I knew he'd understood the whole damn thing.  
  
"I'll see you first Jameel." He took loudmouth into his office. She came out about 15 minutes later looking scared.  
  
"I got a week of detention." Jameel whispered to her friend but I over heard her.  
  
"Stacy, I'll see you now." Mr Marks called skank number two into his office. So now they had names. He was leaving me for last because he was going to believe them. It was painfully obvious. It wasn't my fault people seemed to take my attitude as an invitation to fight me. Or that I'd been fighting life for so long I didn't know any other way to cope.  
  
After another 15 minutes with Stacy Mr Marks sent her out and on her way. She looked just as upset as the last one had. I was really in for it. If he was going this hard on the Barbie squad he was gonna have it in for me.  
  
"Leticia." He said shortly and I got up and followed him into his office.  
  
"This is the 3rd fight in as many weeks! What is the matter with you?"  
  
"That girl, Jameel, she was talking shit about me and she got in my face."  
  
Mr Marks looked almost sad. That was scary.  
  
"Letty," also scary, he never went with short forms of names, it was always formal with him, "there are always going to be people who don't like you, who get 'in your face'. You can not beat up every last one of them in the ladies room. You must learn to control that temper if you're ever going to make something of yourself."  
  
"I already am 'making something of myself. All I want to do is work for Van in his garage and I already do that."  
  
"Well then it's good that auto shop is the only class you are making over 80 in. You're a smart girl but you don't try and you have the biggest chip on your shoulder. There will always be a girl who's prettier or richer or has more things then you. That girl is out there for every other person in the world Miss Rodriguez. You have to learn to deal with it. And also when you have something everyone else wants you must accept the fact that others will try to take it from you. Have enough confidence in yourself to just let it slide."  
  
He was just being honest. But I was only 17. I didn't want to hear it. It made me angry he was right. I did have a big chip on my shoulder about a lot of things. But anger was easier then admitting it hurt me when those girls called me names like tomboy or scruff or greaseball. Or that it hurt when the guys looked at me and made cracks like 'flat as a board, never been nailed'. If I could just show that I was tough enough that it didn't matter then I could let on it didn't hurt.  
  
Mr Marks handed me a tissue to wipe the blood off my cheek.  
  
"You want me to just let them talk about me all over the place?" I flopped back into my chair, crossed my arms and looked at the man who was only trying to be civil and lay it down straight for me for the first time ever.  
  
"I want you to realize that violence only makes more violence. You're lucky those girls hurt you some too or I'd likely be forced to call the police and press charges Letty. A mutual brawl I can explain to the parents of those girls and convince them that it would mean all three of you would be up on charges. But Letty, you are a very strong young woman and you're going to seriously hurt someone someday if you don't learn to control that temper."  
  
I sighed. He was right. Didn't mean I had to admit it.  
  
"I guess." I mumbled. He sighed and ran a hand through his black hair.  
  
"I'm going to have to send you home Letty and you're going to have a week of detention too."  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Should I even bother calling your father or should I call Mia's father right away instead?"  
  
"You may as well call Van. It's not like my father gives a fuck and even if you did get a hold of him or my mother she'd be too coked out to drive and my dad would just come to beat my ass." I was sick of hiding it.  
  
"Letty! Language please. I'm not one of your schoolyard friends with the same potty mouth. That said, why didn't you ever tell a councillor how bad it was for you at home? We all knew of course, that your parents couldn't take a very active role in your education since they never come to your conferences but we didn't know just how bad it was. We could help you if we knew, get you out of there."  
  
"I don't know why I said that Mr. Marks. Things are fine. I pretty much live with Mia anyway. If you tell on my folks then I might end up in foster care. I'm 18 in less then a year anyway then I can just move into Van's. He's already said he doesn't mind."  
  
I didn't want Mr. Marks to tell child services about how my home was. I wasn't really ever there anyway. That much was true.  
  
"Fine Letty. But you can't ever tell anyone you told me about it or I could lose my job."  
  
"Thanks Mr. Marks, you're alright."  
  
"Alright, just wait there while I call Mr. Toretto."  
  
I sat back and crossed my arms. Van would take me back to the garage with him and I'd forget my troubles while I worked on one of 'The Ladies' as Dom and his dad called them, or maybe I'd finally get the time to install my new HKS lowering springs into the Silvia. It had been at the garage for the last few weeks waiting for all the modds to be finished. I was missing driving him already.  
  
Mia had gotten a car for her birthday mere days after mine. But her Acura, while nice, was nothing like my Silvia. But Mia had been driving us to school for all the time that Raidon had been laid up waiting on parts.  
  
"Yes, could I speak to Giovanni Toretto please?"  
  
I imagine Dom answered the phone and I imagine he knows both who was calling and why.  
  
"Will he be back?" There was a pause while Mr Marks listened to the reply.  
  
"I see. Is this Dominic?" Another pause.  
  
"Well, is there any chance you could come get her? I have to send her home in the company of an adult...Great, see you soon then, I'm sure you remember where my office is Dominic."  
  
Mr. Marks chuckled and I'm sure so had Dom. I was kind of upset about this whole Dom coming for me thing.  
  
Dom's dad would have shared a look with me, patted my hand and taken me for an ice cream and an icepack for my face. He knew why I fought all the time I think. He didn't agree but I guess maybe he knew that since all I'd seen at home growing up was fighting that it was hard for me to respond any other way.  
  
Dom got pissed at me for fighting so much. No that he'd fought much less. But he didn't like it when I did.  
  
Dom arrived for me inside of 10 minutes and signed me out. We got into the RX-7 and started for home.  
  
"What was this one over Let?" Dom asked, sounding disappointed.  
  
"Nothin'." I mumbled back.  
  
"God Letty. All you do is fight."  
  
"I can't help it. What, you'd rather I let those buffies talk shit about me and beat on me and not do anything about it?"  
  
"I'd rather you learned to walk away and learned that just cause some skank talks shit about you, about me, or about us it doesn't make it true."  
  
"I know that. But it's still hard to know the whole school is likely talking about you."  
  
"You're done in a few months anyway then you can just come work with me'n dad'n Vince. Don't make your last few months harder then they have to be by fighting all the time or getting expelled Letty. You wanna face a whole 'nother year of this crap?"  
  
Dom knew what he was talking about.  
  
"No, I don't want to 'pull a Dom' and do an extra year." I answered him with a shit eating grin.  
  
He smiled back and pulled into a little off the way beach he and Mia call theirs.  
  
"You don't want to pull a Dom huh?" He asked as he leaned onto my side of the small red sports car.  
  
"No." I breathed out.  
  
It was a lot later when we got back to the garage to find Van had returned and had been talking to my principal. I think he was starting to get disappointed himself with all my fighting.  
  
Dom and I worked on my car for the rest of the afternoon and then went home.  
  
So no, I didn't normally take shit quietly, I normally fought it out. But I'd learned that day that all the fighting wasn't a solution either. But Rome was right, it wasn't like me to just take it in silence either.  
  
I'd let them see the real Letty from now on. A tough girl, with a better control of her temper that knows how to run her mouth, doesn't take shit, gives it instead, and takes care of herself first and foremost.  
  
I worked on the car till 6. That was when Tej came over to me and tapped me on the shoulder.  
  
"We racin tonight. You comin?"  
  
"Oh hell yeah." I answered.  
  
"Good. You should knock off early to get ready then."  
  
"I'll do that."  
  
Tej walked away and I smiled softly. It was on. Races. What I lived for.  
  
I couldn't wait for night to come. I was going to kick some ass. 


	23. Spooled You!

Chapter 23 – Spooled you!  
  
I knocked off work at 7:00. I had to check over Raidon before I could race him. Everything checked out fine. But I'd forgotten to refill my NOS after my first race.  
  
I had enough for a race or two, but not if I had to use more then one shot a race.  
  
I saw Jimmy, the other guy who works for Tej was still in the garage.  
  
"Hey man." I said, walking up to him. He looked up at me from his position over a Honda Civic.  
  
"Hey. How you doin?"  
  
Jimmy was ok. Kinda like Jesse but without the sense of innocence. He was just a good kid though and an awesome mechanic.  
  
"I'm good. But Tej wants me to head to races tonight and I don't know where to go to get my tanks filled."  
  
"Ah. No sweat. They in the purple car right?"  
  
"Yeah. Is there a store that sells spray around close?"  
  
"Nope, but I'll fill 'em for you here when I get this head back on. Tej keeps a supply of spray in the shop so we can do our own tanks."  
  
"I'd offer to fill my own but we bought all our spray from 'The Racer's Edge' so I don't know how."  
  
Jimmy looked surprised. I don't know if it was because I was willing to do my own work or if he was surprised I either didn't know how or admitted to not knowing how.  
  
"No problem. I mostly fill everyone's anyway. The machine can be a bit temperamental." Jimmy smiled at me.  
  
"Well, that's cool then. I'll leave the car unlocked since it's inside. The tanks are in the passenger seat."  
  
"Wow, you have a sneaky Pete NOS system?"  
  
"Yep." Thanks to Dom.  
  
"Cool. Well, I'll get right on that, and I'll see you tonight."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
I went down to the boat to get ready for races. I didn't have to show off for Dom anymore but I still wanted to look good. I wanted to show off my car and myself to my best advantage.  
  
I was going to rise to the top of the racing scene here too and I wanted people to know who I was. And I didn't want them thinking I was a slut or that I was ugly. I wanted to strike the right balance of sexy but stylish.  
  
I don't want to end up with a bad rep. Well, bad in that people are pissed off I never lose would be alright but not a rep for being a bitch or for dressing like a ho either.  
  
I know I have that rep back home. Letty the bitch with more balls then half the men. That's how they think of me. They think I'm all a bad temper and feisty attitude. No one sees what that attitude is protecting me from or how I got that way. No one but Mia.  
  
Even Dom doesn't really seem to care most of the time. He's allowed to put his hands on the skanks and its still 'just talkin' in his world. Fuck, it's a wonder I even enjoy going to races anymore. The way Dom treats me at them and about them should have been enough to turn me off going for the rest of my life.  
  
But I'm fairly territorial so no matter how much I might have hated going to watch Dom act like he was free to get with any girl that looked good, I was still going to go. I had to make it known that that boy was my property. And that was my story and I was sticking with it to the outside world.  
  
I looked into my closet and just stood there, looking at my clothes. I'd normally wear a leather mini skirt and a tank top. But that had mostly been to show off how good I looked for Dom. It's a pain in the fuckin ass to drive stick in a tight short skirt. I mean, it's a very good thing no one can see more then my top half when I drive in a skirt. It's a very clear view right up into 'all my business' if you get my drift. And then you have to be all careful getting out of the car or everyone sees just what your underwear looks like.  
  
Or if you're half the skanks around Dom everyone sees you're not wearing any.  
  
I'm wearing pants tonight. I have a free chance to start over after all. No one really knows me yet. So if I start wearing pants now then that can just be my style and no one will know better. But I still want to look good.  
  
I don't want to look to close at the reasons why but I think the fact that Rome will be around and he's mostly only seen me in garage mode and in a fancy dress have something to do with it. I mean garage mode me is real but the other one isn't.  
  
It was a fun act for that night but it's not really how I am. Race me is as real as it gets. I pulled out my black leather pants with the red dragons embroidered on the sides that Vince got me for Christmas last year and a red cropped tank top. I had my dog tags on, as always and my flame boots.  
  
How I got those boots is kind of a funny story. Dom's dad insisted on us all having proper footwear for the shop. So he meant steel toed work boots. I couldn't find any made for girls.  
  
I mean I have smaller feet then men and they're narrower too. I found men's boots that would have fit me lengthwise but they were never comfortable on my feet. I was always complaining about how my boots didn't fit right and how it was hard to walk in them and how they looked like crap.  
  
Vince made fun of me for caring that my work boots be stylish but I didn't care. I mean the ugliness of them wasn't the real problem; it was the way they didn't fit. The fact they were butt ugly didn't help. Dom never said anything, not when I complained, not when Vince picked on me, not ever.  
  
But then the first Christmas that I was actively working in the garage, the Christmas after the complaining started I opened my present from Dom to find the coolest boots ever. They had steel toes to please Van, but had thick soles, almost like wearing heels and flames on them to please me.  
  
Is it sad to be this attached to footwear? Because I love these boots and I wear them everywhere. I did get a hard time from Mia about that a lot too. 'You can't wear those with a skirt!' she'd always tell me. But I never listened. I hope they never wear out because I don't know what I'd do without them.  
  
See, that's one way that Dom can be so sweet. He managed to find stylish work boots for me. And not only that but he knew me so well that he picked out a pair that I fell that in love with that I'll never want to be without them.  
  
So I finished lacing them up and then stood up. It was 9pm. I don't know when racing starts around here, but I bet I'm ready early. I headed out to the kitchen and Brian was no where to be found. I got the stuff out of the fridge for supper and started to cook.  
  
I made extra in case Brian came back and he was hungry.  
  
I was chopping up some stuff when I happened to look at the back door. There was a man standing in the screen door.  
  
I screamed and jumped a mile. I wasn't expecting anyone to be on the porch. I snatched the knife back up to get ready to rumble. Then I heard Rome's frantic laughter.  
  
"Man girl, you should see the look on your face. What smells so good?"  
  
"What the hell were you doing out there?" I asked, sort of pissed that he saw me scared and saw me jump.  
  
"Waiting for you to notice me. You gonna ask me in?"  
  
"Maybe. When do we leave for racing around here?"  
  
"11 or 12. No one actually races till 1am anyway."  
  
"Ok then, come in." Rome opened the door and sat himself at the table.  
  
"So, you gonna tell me what it is that smells good or do I have to guess."  
  
I told him what I was having and asked him if he was hungry. As if he was gonna say no. I could have just set the food in front of him and he would have eaten it. He was always hungry. Just like my V man.  
  
When the food was ready I set it down in front of him and sat with mine and we both started to eat. Brian came home during our dinner.  
  
"Hey guys."  
  
"Hey Bri." Rome and I answered in unison and then laughed.  
  
"You hungry?" I asked as Brian fully entered the boat.  
  
"Yeah." Brian helped himself. I couldn't help but think he seemed preoccupied.  
  
"Everything ok?" I asked him as he sat down.  
  
"Yeah, it's fine." Brian looked up and smiled at me. It wasn't his best effort.  
  
"Ok." I let it go; I didn't want to pressure him. "You runnin that silver beast tonight?" I tried to cheer Brian up.  
  
"Against you?" Brian smiled at me, in his little smirk, like he's gonna make you work for everything he gives you.  
  
"Yeah, or against anyone."  
  
"Never against you Letty. I told you that." Brian smirked again but he looked serious around his eyes.  
  
"I'm not that good Bri. You have as much shot as anyone. That's not much, but you have that same chance." I grinned. Rome laughed. Brian still looked kinda down.  
  
I'm gonna have to find out what's up with that boy tomorrow. I'm worried about him. I guess that after all he's been through he's bound to have down days. But it's Brian. He's always been about the surfer good looks and California golden boy smile. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who gets down, and it doesn't suit him at all.  
  
"Well, maybe someday we'll put that to the test Reina. For now though, you're the queen and I don't want a chance at that throne."  
  
"Maybe I do." Rome piped up.  
  
"In your car?" I asked before I thought about how it would sound when it came out.  
  
On thing I've learned really fast by dating Dominic and hanging around Vince and Leon is that you never dis a man's whip. Not ever. You never say anything that can come off as a dis either. You always let 'em think that they're all that, even when you know they're not.  
  
But again, it's not my style to watch my mouth that close either. More like some kinda self preservation instinct just made me start doin it around Dom when I didn't want to brawl with him.  
  
"Yeah in my car miss Racer Girl. What? You don't think I can take you?" Rome looked like it was all one big joke to him and I was thankful. I didn't want to have a big fight with him over thinking I could race better then him. I could, but again, I knew better then to rub it in.  
  
"No offence man, but I don't think Brian can take me in a skyline. I really don't think you can take me in an Eclipse. It's not you, it's just that I've been doing this so long and my car is so tuned I don't think you've got what it takes in that Eclipse to take Ray."  
  
"Ray?" Rome asked.  
  
"Raidon, my car."  
  
"You named your car?" Rome snickered.  
  
"Brian named his Honey for Christ's sake. What's wrong with mine having a Japanese name?"  
  
"I laughed at Brian for naming the skyline Honey too. Why Raidon?"  
  
"He's the Japanese god of thunder." I said, sitting back and crossing my arms. I was pretending to be very hurt about him teasing me about naming my car.  
  
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."  
  
"You didn't. You just convinced me more then ever there's no way in hell you can take me in a race and win." I was gonna get revenge.  
  
"How so?" Rome narrowed his eyes and looked right at me.  
  
"Well, I mean you don't even love your car enough to give it a name. How do you think you could ever beat a partnership like me and my baby boy?"  
  
Brian was practically pissing his pants as he watched us go on. He thought the whole thing was great. I was glad he was out of the blue mood he'd come home in. At least for a while anyway.  
  
"I think I can take you miss queen of the streets." Rome looked me up and down.  
  
"Well, bring your cash and your game face tonight then and we'll see. I'm sure Tej can find us a third and fourth."  
  
"I'm sure he can." Rome stood up and headed for the door. "See you at the garage at 12 then?"  
  
"I'll be there." I called out to his retreating back. "So, Brian, how good is your boy?"  
  
"Good enough to win a lot of what he enters."  
  
"Good enough to take me?"  
  
"Not likely." Brian grinned. So did I. "You know one of the others is gonna be Suki right?" Brian asked, grin being replaced with a frown.  
  
"So? I'll kick her little haten ass too and my night will be complete."  
  
"She's better'n Rome."  
  
"Is she better'n me?"  
  
"She'll come closer then Rome."  
  
"Could she beat Leon?"  
  
"Hell no!" Brian snorted.  
  
"Well, I can. So I guess I can take her too."  
  
"You can beat Leon?" Brian looked incredulous.  
  
"Yeah, about half the time. Why you look so shocked?"  
  
"Because my skyline's better'n his and till you came along there was no one I thought could get me. I know Leon's a phenomenal racer and I don't think I could take him, even with the differences in our skylines."  
  
"I know you couldn't take him. But you gotta remember Brian, me'n the mad scientist are tight. You know he's put a lot of his spare time into my ride. I can take whatever ya'll wanna throw at me."  
  
"We'll see."  
  
"Yeah we will." I stood up to go check on Raidon. If I was racing Suki I had to have my car in the topmost shape.  
  
I headed up to the garage. I was getting sort of concerned about beating Suki. I couldn't not beat her. She was only running an s2000 which should be like taking candy from a baby for me to race and win against. But nothing good ever comes from breaking the rules and one of mine is never underestimate any opponent you haven't raced before.  
  
I really had to win. I somehow knew that not only was the Acura a test, so was the invite to races tonight. Tej wanted to know if I could race and win consistently. I have a real bad idea about what he's gonna do. I don't know why that is but he just didn't seem like he was asking me to races out of generosity.  
  
Now, I know some things about my car that everyone else doesn't know. It's gonna help me out tonight.  
  
Yeah, it's an s14 Silvia. Anyone who knows Nissans is gonna know that. And obviously since I drive on the 'normal' left hand side of the car, and not the right side like Leon it's the American car, so it started life off as a 240sx. And everyone can tell it's been converted to a Silvia. But what everyone doesn't know is that I got the sr20det engine imported with the Garrett T28BB that was technically only available in Japan. Jesse found this awesome Silvia front clip and got it into the country somehow. My car is essentially a skyline underneath. It shares the skyline engine. It's even registered in KM/H just like it would be in Japan.  
  
So people aren't up against a 240sx when they race me, it's almost like they're up against a skyline. But no one knows. It's my secret. And I'm betting, since I haven't seen Rome do more then oil changes and bolt ons, that he has no idea what engine the car should have and what it has now. I'm knowing that no Honda on planet earth is going to touch me and my car.  
  
So that only means that it remains to be seen who the fourth is to see if I have to worry tonight or not. But whether I do technically have to or not, I still am.  
  
I'm gonna do something crazy. I have to win. But its nuts for me to do what I'm thinking off.  
  
I mean, it's nuts for me to do it without Jesse here to supervise. I need to talk to the mad scientist. Sometimes even a girl like me needs to talk to her tech advisor. I ran back down to the boat and got 'the phone' off Brian. I'm still not impressed that the untraceable phone gave out our number, but what can I do about it now.  
  
Brian and I decided to keep the thing but keep it turned off. That way if there's an emergency at home they can get a hold of me by leaving a message on the phone. It's a good plan. I called up the house and waited for them to answer the phone.  
  
"Hello?" Dom's deep baritone filled the line and filled my soul. I've been to long without that voice. It makes me sad that it doesn't reverberate through me over the phone the way it does when he talks while my chest is pressed to his. I consider hanging up the phone. I don't want to talk to him at all. But I need Jesse.  
  
"Hey. Jesse there?" No small talk. Just get him the fuck off the phone and get on with my life. Get on with pretending that something as simple as the sound of his voice doesn't make me remember what I'm missing.  
  
"Letty. Where are you?" Dom growled at me.  
  
"In the garage Dom. Jesse there?"  
  
"What garage?" Man that boy's stubborn.  
  
"The one I work at. Can I talk to Jesse?"  
  
"Letty." Dom sighed, frustrated. "When are you coming home?"  
  
"When will you be ready to get on with your life and apologize to me?"  
  
"I don't know." I could almost hear the hand running over the stubble on his head. Dom always rubs his head when I annoy him.  
  
"Then I don't know either. Will you get the kid already?" I sighed. Dom didn't even answer me. He just yelled of Jesse to 'pick up the god damn phone'. I must have hit a nerve.  
  
"Hello?" Jesse answered.  
  
"Hey Kiddo. How's it goin?"  
  
"Letty! How you doin?" Jesse sounded happy.  
  
"Good. I need some help though."  
  
"What's wrong?" Jesse sounded worried.  
  
"Nothing exactly. I have this big race tonight. I have to win."  
  
"Shouldn't be an issue girl. You can take anyone."  
  
"Thanks for the confidence boost kid but I can't leave this one go on my rep. I need to be more sure."  
  
"What were you thinking?" Jesse asked. I could see plans running in his head already. "You could up your NOS shot by 50."  
  
"Now you're talking. Can you walk me through that over the phone?"  
  
"Yeah, that's simple. You got your laptop with you?"  
  
"In the trunk. The car is the only thing I just that thing for."  
  
"Well, boot it up and jack it into the computer of the car."  
  
"We'll do." I answered him and set about doing that. "Jesse?"  
  
"Yeah LD." Jesse asked. He calls me LD as short for Little Dawg. He got Dawg from Leon and he calls Dom BD or Big Dawg. He moved that into LD for me.  
  
"I wanna up my boost too."  
  
"Letty..." Jesse started into his warning tone of voice. I hate that.  
  
"Jesse..." I whined back.  
  
"I don't think your fuel map can handle more boost. I mean, it can but only if you upgrade the injectors to like 1200cc or better and get a fuel pump that can push more fuel to keep up."  
  
"I don't have time for that kiddo, I need it by tonight."  
  
"Can't you just trust me that the 150 shot of NOS will give you all the extra kick you need and it won't fry your engine?"  
  
"Nope, wanna run at 30PSI."  
  
"Letty. I really don't recommend it till you come home and we have the time and parts to upgrade the whole fuel system. You're gonna run it too lean and it's gonna implode."  
  
"If I just run it at 35PSI for tonight, three races tops, should it be ok?"  
  
"Yeah. But then you gotta take it right back down to 25, or you could blow the whole thing up. And I can't guarantee you I can find you another front clip for it. You'd have to tow it home from where ever to me so I could tear it right down and start from scratch." Jesse cautioned me.  
  
"Ok MS, walk me through this, the computer's ready to go."  
  
And so Jesse took me through upping the NOS shot and the boost pressure of my turbo. He even helped me remap the fuel so that I hopefully wouldn't get a hole in the map, run too lean and end up cooking my engine. That'd go over real well with Tej.  
  
I slammed the hood as we finished.  
  
"Thanks Jesse."  
  
"No sweat LD. Good luck, let me know how she runs like that will ya?"  
  
"Only if you remember that Ray is not a she." I teased.  
  
"Yeah, yeah." Jesse laughed.  
  
"Put my bro on?" I asked, needing to hear Vince's voice before my big night.  
  
"Yeah, hold on. VEE!" Jesse yelled in the background. I heard feet running and flesh hitting flesh.  
  
"Hey baby girl." Vince said.  
  
"Who hit who?" I asked, curious.  
  
"I hit Leon. He tried to take the phone from Jesse even though the kid called me." Vince snickered. I laughed.  
  
"You'n Leon are always picken at each other."  
  
"He's always tryin shit." Vince answered. Things really are that simple in his life. Must be nice. "So, what's up?"  
  
"I just wanted to chat for a few. I got a big race tonight."  
  
"Pre race jitters?" Vince shrewdly asked. He wasn't here to joke me out of the funk.  
  
"Yeah. That'n, well, I can't lose this one V. So I had the kid help me make some changes."  
  
"Such as?" Vince asked, suspicious.  
  
"Well, he helped me up the NOS to a 150 shot."  
  
"Well, I thought you should have done that long ago."  
  
"And I had him help me set the turbo back up for 35P."  
  
"Letty. Hell no. That car isn't set up to run that kind of boost and you know it."  
  
"Yeah, I do. But it's just for tonight. There's this puta and I know I'm gonna have to run her tonight and she can't win. But she has B..." I caught my slip and ended it at B before I finished Brian. "...and this other guy helping her tune her car. I have to be ready for her to be good."  
  
"But Jesse built your car. And he built it to run at 25P. You know you need to work on the fuel system before you go any higher."  
  
"Yeah I do know that but I don't got the time. The car needed to roll tonight ready to kick ass. I'll do the fuel mods soon cause there's this skyline here I might have to race someday. Jesse has me leaving the laptop jacked in to run the system and I'm tuning it back down as soon as I get it home."  
  
"You know it'll kill him if you wreck that car Let. He'll think you did it on purpose."  
  
He was talking about Dom and we both know it. No names are needed there. I know Vince said it like that so Dom would think Vince meant Jesse if he was listening.  
  
"I know V, but I'm not gonna wreck the car. I love the car as much as I loved him."  
  
"Loved?" Vince asked, concerned.  
  
"For now, yeah." I answered, trying to convince myself too.  
  
"Alright baby girl. Just be careful and be safe. Let me know how it goes."  
  
"I will."  
  
"You wanna say hi to Le before he explodes?" Vince laughed.  
  
"Sure." I laughed back, picturing Leon doing a dance beside Vince like he had to go to the bathroom.  
  
"Hey LD." Leon had adopted the nickname, thinking it was a good fit.  
  
"Hey big bird." My nickname for him, and his car. It was like an either or kinda thing.  
  
He laughed. He always got a kick out of it because I'd call him that in front of the skanks and they'd all think I'd seen something I shouldn't have seen and they'd be even more all over him. As if his big green eyes and 'take care of me' hairdo wasn't enough.  
  
"I hear you're doing crazy things to poor Ray." Being one of the few people in the world who'd also named his car, Leon was in agreement about using the names.  
  
"Yeah, for tonight."  
  
"Well, good luck with that."  
  
"Thanks. I should go."  
  
"Ok LD. See you soon?"  
  
"I don't know about that one but I'll talk to you soon."  
  
"Ok."  
  
"Tell Mia I said hi and that I'll call her soon."  
  
"We'll do."  
  
We both hung up and I realized it was 11:30 now that all the mods were done. I started to polish the paint off to wait for Brian and Rome to show up.  
  
"What have you been up to?" Brian asked as he and Rome walked into the shop.  
  
"Just a little fine tuning." I answered with a smirk.  
  
Tej and Jimmy showed up with Suki in tow.  
  
"Hey Bullitt, you racin'?" Jimmy asked.  
  
"Maybe." Brian answered. Jimmy turned to me.  
  
"I got your spray all hooked up."  
  
"Great. Thanks. We ready to roll then?"  
  
"Let's head out." Tej answered and we all headed off with a squeal to his meeting place. I was bringing up the rear since I had no idea where I was going.  
  
We pulled in and got surrounded by people right away. My car wasn't as flashy as most of those around. I mean, it's a custom colour and has some graphics. That's it. Everyone else had tonnes of neon and huge ass stereos and stuff. My car was really built to race, not to be a show car.  
  
The phrase all show and no go really came into my mind as I looked around. I had no desire to rice up my car the way the ones around me were. My car was built to run like the wind, not to sit in and watch DVD's. I mean, I like my tunes, I have a stereo. But not a TV, DVD player, PSII and all that crap in it.  
  
I was getting worried about running the car as lean as it was going to be boosting as high as I was. But I didn't have time to go into it and lower the boost so I was going to have to go with it. But I did dump a can of Octane boost into the gas tank.  
  
Tej got up in the back of his truck.  
  
"Ok ya'll. Who's in this first race? I need three people who wanna run my new girl here, Letty, and her s14."  
  
Murmurs of 'new girl?' started to go through the crowd. Yeah, that's right, just an s14 people, nothing to worry about. I giggled under my breath.  
  
"I'm in!" Suki called just like I knew she would.  
  
"Me too!" Rome added his two cents and his money to the pile.  
  
"Ok, I need a fourth then." Tej called. "Come on, anyone?"  
  
"I'm in." A beautiful white girl stepped up and dumped her 3 grand on the pile. She was tall for a woman, tall as me, maybe an inch taller. She had long, slightly wavy honey blonde hair and the bluest eyes I've ever seen this side of Brian.  
  
When I thought about it more I realized the girl looked kinda like Brian. And she was shooting dirty looks my way too.  
  
Holy fuck, I bet that's his sister I thought. I couldn't help it. She looked just like Brian.  
  
Brian walked up to her and grabbed her in a hug. "Fiona! I wasn't expecting you."  
  
Brian was very clearly happy to have his sister around. This spelled trouble for me. I know the girl knows who I am and what part I played in Brian's exit from the force. And now I'm gonna kick her ass. I looked around trying to figure what she drove.  
  
"Hey big bro." She spared a smile for Brian.  
  
"When did you decide to race around here?" Brian asked his sister.  
  
"Since you got me hooked when I started to visit."  
  
"What are you gonna run? Last time I checked you drove a Honda Civic." Brian laughed.  
  
She's gonna race me in a civic?  
  
"Oh, I upgraded a bit since then." Fiona laughed and pointed.  
  
She pointed out a green third generation RX-7 just like Dom's. So no sweat, with my car running the way it is now, no way she can take me. Not unless she learned to drive as good as Dom. And since she just started to race when Brian moved here she couldn't be that good. Could she?  
  
What was it Rome told me again? Something about it being about the size of the fight in the dog and about who had the most to run for.  
  
Well, I think this chick has a lot to run for, considering how mad she must be at my whole family about what she thinks we did to her brother. The night just got more interesting by half.  
  
"Ok then Fifi baby, you in." Tej said with a smile and a hug for the blonde girl.  
  
Uh oh, seems she's a team favourite up here. If I smoke her, and I do fully intend on doing so, it's not going to go over well with Tej. And not with Jimmy or Suki either I wouldn't think, judging by how they're all laughing and hugging right now.  
  
I feel just as much like an outsider now as I did when I first got here. It stings but then I push it down and school my tough bitch look onto my face. I didn't come here to make friends. I came here to get away from Dom and to get to race. If I get to race and I win then who cares if Brian's sister and friends don't like me?  
  
I guess the answer is I care. But it sucks to care about it when I think I shouldn't. Like Brian remembered me then he motioned me over and I went with dragging feet. I don't want to talk to her at all.  
  
"Letty, this is Fiona, my sister. Fiona, this is Letty, or as you've heard me call her, Reina."  
  
"Hey." I said, trying to sound like I cared to meet her just to not be rude.  
  
"Hey." She answered in much the same tone and Brian gave her a look, like he was warning her to play nice.  
  
Is it my lot in life to have every last new person I meet hate me? First Suki and now Brian's sister.  
  
Like Tej knew it was getting too thick he called us all to the line.  
  
"You sure you want to do this Fifi?" I heard him ask her before he lowered his voice and all I heard after that was 'surprise' and 'route'. It sounded like he was warning her off the race based on some surprise he had planned near the end of the route.  
  
Well, I'll just have to find out I guess. I went to my car and climbed in. I fired it up and looked over to my left at Rome. Tej had given me Dom's spot to break from, the far right. He couldn't have known it was where I liked to run from too or he'd have made sure that I didn't get it.  
  
Rome smiled and motioned me to roll down my window.  
  
"You ready Reina?" First time he's ever called me that.  
  
"Always. You?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"See you at the finish line then." I called and rolled the window back up. Rome waved back and turned to his left to talk to Fiona. Suki was on the far left. Tej came up and I rolled down my window and listened while he explained the route to me. I got it all memorized and Tej walked away.  
  
A skank walked out in front of us and got our attention. She held her arms up and wiggled her fingers. I revved up Ray and he sounded ok. No negative effects from what I did yet. I could vaguely hear everyone else revving their cars too but I tuned it out and turned up the tunes. I needed to be in my own world for what I was about to attempt. I blasted 'Gimme the light' by Sean Paul. I love the beat and the words don't really make sense so I don't need to listen too hard. It says fuel injector once which made me thing about what I'd done again but only for a second. So who was gonna catch my flow?  
  
The skank dropped her arms and we all broke off the line, me and Fiona fishtailing a bit as we over revved our cars a bit.  
  
I straightened out to find myself in second place to Fiona with Suki on my tail and Rome behind her. We raced down the straightaway.  
  
The feeling of my newly adjusted turbo spooling up and kicking in at just over 2 grand was more then I can put into words. The car literally jumped ahead and snapped me back into my seat so hard my neck hurt.  
  
Holy hell 10 PSI is like a whole nother turbo under there. I need those fuel mods so I can run him like this all the time. I passed Fiona so fast that her car was just a green blur. I think the fucken tires squealed mid race. I hit second and waited for the rush of hitting that turbo power band to happen again.  
  
2000 RPM came again and the rust was just as powerful. I was gaining on everyone. I knew better then to get comfortable out front though. I kept pushing it to the red line. Rome was pretty far behind. Fiona was sort of keeping up with me about a car length behind me and Suki was right behind her.  
  
Suki went to make a move but Fiona kept moving her car in front of her. I kept pushing my car up through third and fourth, each time the turbo kicked in I got a rush right through my body.  
  
Fiona must have found her power band because she started to catch me. She was a novice and it was showing. The only reason she was still ahead of Suki was because she was anticipating each time the other girl tried to come up on her.  
  
Suki faked her out and got around her. Then she started to gain on me.  
  
I took the second turn of the race and Suki wasn't far off my ass. Of course, that's likely where she'd like to be, I thought nastily.  
  
I ran it in fourth the whole way down the third straight away. Suki kept trying to get around me and I kept cutting her off. I wasn't really pushing the car yet. I didn't want to use NOS till the last leg of the race.  
  
I took the fourth corner of the circuit tight and Suki swung wide to try and get around me. Fiona was still right there.  
  
Soon as I levelled out I pushed the peddle to the floor and started to pull away.  
  
That was about when I noticed the bridge in the road was opening. So that was Tej's surprise on the route. Well, he's not getting me. I'ma jump it. But it does explain why I had a bad feeling about this race right from the start.  
  
But telling myself I was going to do it and not being scared as fuck are two different things. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty and the adrenaline was doing...interesting...things with my body.  
  
I hit my NOS and hit the gas. I knew I needed speed if I was gonna make the jump. I glanced in my rearview and saw that Rome wasn't going to take the jump. He had stopped his car. Suki and Fiona were trying to make up ground. They both started to fly at me at an alarming rate, I guess they discovered their NOS too.  
  
The bridge was right in front of me. I discovered NOS 2 and picked up speed. I was running at 220 KM/h which is about 150 MPH. I hit the bridge and was launched into the air. The feeling of being in a car weightless was again something I don't have words for. It was incredible, sensational, indescribable, and a whole bunch of other words that make you think of fabulous things.  
  
Suki and Fiona hit it at the same time half a second after me and we all landed in unison since I flew farther. I winced at the noise my car made when it landed. But I kept it on course and on the road. So did the other girls a quick glance in the rearview confirmed. But Fiona's car was spewing sparks from the undercarriage.  
  
Does it go without saying that I got over the line first? It should. I beat them both. Suki by a car length and Fiona by three. Fiona did good for a newbie. And Suki's a pretty good racer too. But not as good as me. I hope the little puta has something to say to me about it too.  
  
We pulled up and got out of our cars. Tej handed me the money.  
  
"You did good."  
  
"Thanks. Did I pass?"  
  
"Yeah, with flying colours."  
  
Rome walked up to me.  
  
"Nice girl. I wish I'd have taken that bridge."  
  
"Why didn't ya?"  
  
"Too scared to roll over in a convertible I guess."  
  
I respect him for admitting it. I nodded to show him that. But I couldn't just let it go.  
  
"But you do know what that means right?"  
  
"No, what?"  
  
"Spooled ya!"  
  
With that I walked up to Fiona.  
  
"Want me to take a look?" I asked and waited to see what her reaction would be. 


	24. In Vino Et Veritas

Chapter 24 – In Vino Et Veritas (In Wine, Truth)  
  
"You think you know what you're doing?" Fiona asked.  
  
"Yeah. This is what I do." I told her, trying to play nice.  
  
"Be my guest." She offered, still not in the most polite tone she could have used and got up from her crouching position beside her car.  
  
I hit the ground on my stomach and looked under her car. Her exhaust system slipped a hanger and ended up dragging on the ground, that's what caused the sparks. But since the metal hanger broke off I couldn't fix it right there at races. Not to mention that the pipe was all ground up and flattened. The section of pipe was going to need to be replaced. I looked up at her.  
  
"Exhaust broke a hanger when you landed. I'll wire it up for you so you can drive the car but you'll need to bring it into the garage so someone can replace the section of pipe that's all flattened now."  
  
"Is it safe to drive?" She looked concerned.  
  
"Oh yeah, it's fine to drive. But that flattened part of the pipe is going to restrict your exhaust flow so you're going to lose some horsepower till you get it fixed. It's a Racing Beat exhaust right?"  
  
"Yeah, how'd you know?"  
  
"My Ex has an RX-7 and he swears they make the only exhaust for rotary engines worth having."  
  
She looked momentarily pissed off at me. I guess she knows my ex is Dominic and she doesn't want the reminder of him and what he did.  
  
"So, in that case, do you know anyone who knows what they're doing to work on the damn thing? I can't find a single person who knows about how rotary engines work. And I don't have a clue. I just like to race. I'm never going to be on anyone's pit crew."  
  
"Well, I know a lot about them. I helped D..." I sort of trailed off, not wanting to use his name, "my ex, build his the last time it ate an apex seal and I use to help him all the time with working on it so I guess I'm as close to an expert this side of him you're gonna find. I don't know what Jimmy might know about them though."  
  
"Well, this car is the one thing that has poor Jimmy stumped. He says he doesn't get and doesn't want to." Fiona giggled.  
  
"He's not alone. My best friend Vee, he always says the same thing. 'Fucken thing looks like a Doritos spinning inside an egg. I don't know who the fuck dreamed that up and I don't wanna. Give me pounding pistons any day. 'Least I get what the fuck that's about!' and then he'd leer at me like you know...pounding pistons." I laughed and surprise surprise she joined me. "And my answer to that is always to lean on Dom's car with the engine bonnet open and ask in a, like, dirty voice 'Wanna touch my Wankel?"  
  
I started to laugh but Fiona looked confused.  
  
"I don't really get that part." She admitted, surprising me.  
  
"Well the guy who invented the rotary engine was Mr Felix Wankel, so it's also called a Wankel engine sometimes. It's just a dirty sounding word and it always cracks the whole team up when I say it." She laughed and I could tell she really got it. She's a sharp one.  
  
Then I got sad because when I say that Dom always comes up to me and leans in close while he stands between my legs and whispers to me 'I wanna touch your wankel' and winks. And then I move aside and say 'ok, touch my wankel, it needs an oil change.' And he laughs every time.  
  
Of course he's always trying to get me to do his oil changes and I'm always telling him to do it his own damn self.  
  
"What's wrong?" Fiona asked me after a minute. She looked concerned.  
  
"Nothin, just remembering. So," I got back to the business at hand. "let's find some wire and get this bad boy back on the road for you huh?"  
  
"Ok, where can I find wire?"  
  
I rolled onto my back and fished in my pocket. I pulled out my always present length of mechanics wire.  
  
"Right here." I rolled back over and used the wire to tie her exhaust up off the ground. "Now don't forget to bring that by so we can figure out if we can fix it or if we have to order a replacement pipe from Mazdatrix. Oh, and racing's out till you get that fixed up more solid then just held up with a piece of wire, aiight?"  
  
"Sure, I understand. Thanks." Fiona offered.  
  
"Don't mention it." I replied and with a slightly forced smile I walked away. Tej walked up to me a moment later.  
  
"You gonna race again? I got more people that want to run you then I can count girl. That's off the chain. What did you do to that car to make it run like that anyway?"  
  
"Yeah, I'll race again. And what I did to my car to make it run like that is my secret and always will be. A girl can't just show anyone what she has under the hood." I winked and he laughed.  
  
"I get ya girl but dayum, you're gonna know everything under my hood."  
  
I nodded with a smile, and then remembered something I wanted to tell Tej before any more racing took place.  
  
"Oh, and you betta not ever pull a stunt like that bridge thing again without telling me or you might find yourself eating your teeth." I smiled my sweetest smile to show I wasn't kidding and started to walk away. Much to my surprise Tej just let me go.  
  
I walked over to my car and started to check over the recordings the computer had made during the last race.  
  
Based on what I learned I really didn't think I should run the car more then one or two more times. I was going to have to call it a night after two more races no matter how many other people Tej had that wanted to race.  
  
"I don't know how you beat me but let me assure you it won't happen again!" Suki walked up to my window and started running her mouth right off.  
  
I was straight up not taking it any more.  
  
"I beat you because I'm fuckin better then you and it'll happen again and again and again if you're stupid enough to ever race me again." I didn't even look up from my computer at her. I just told her off while I looked at the screen.  
  
"You cheated in some way. No way you're better then me." Suki scoffed at me.  
  
"Yeah, I cheated. Like how? I mean, NOS isn't cheating, boost isn't cheating, being good at racing isn't cheating. You're not in my league. Just get over it and get back in your hot pink excuse for a car and find some little racer boys that want to give you their money for a chance to see you make out with their girlfriends. Because you have to be better at that then you are at racing."  
  
She gasped at that. I'm pretty bitchy when I'm riled.  
  
"You got some nerve comin up in here like you're a somebody and then thinking you can out race me."  
  
"Well, Brian and Rome both seem to think I'm somebody and I just proved I can race you."  
  
She went to speak and I shushed her.  
  
"Don't speak." I finally looked her in the eye. "Just try to find some measure of ladylikeness in yourself and walk away now."  
  
"Did you tell me to shut up?" Suki looked like that surely wasn't possible.  
  
"Yeah, I told you to shut the fuck up and get the fuck away from me and my car."  
  
She leaned in the open window and slapped me. God, I mean, she bitch slapped me.  
  
I got up out of my car and then looked down at her. She didn't look scared. Well, good for her. But it was stupid too. Because I was about to show her why she should have been. I decked her, catching her in the eye.  
  
She gasped and came at me. She tried to slap me again. So I hit her again.  
  
"Come on, you're out of your league in fighting me too, just like racin me. That the best you can do?" I taunted as she tried to scratch me. I punched her again and split her lip open.  
  
By that time a crowd had gathered and while most of them were just cheering us on some of them looked concerned. Isn't it always the way that most men get thrilled when girls fight? Why does two chicks fighting get them off?  
  
Like it finally occurred to someone that we were really fighting and I was kicking the shit out of Suki someone must have gone to get Tej. He came running up with Jimmy and pulled us apart.  
  
"You two need to leave it on the blacktop." Tej lectured us.  
  
"You need to tell it to your girl." I told him. "She came up to my car after our race and started running her mouth. It had nothing to do with me. Then when I told her to bounce she slapped me."  
  
"Whatever. No fighting in public when you both represent my garage. Got it?" Tej really wasn't happy. Likely because miss perfect got her ass handed to her on the street and after.  
  
"Yeah." I agreed and so did Suki.  
  
I did race two more times against three other guys each time and I won each time. This circuit racing thing was fun. It was a bigger challenge then running a car down a straight quarter mile stretch and just going as fast as you could, that was for sure. Plus it helped that I was still pissed off and high on adrenaline from my win and my fight.  
  
By the time the other two races were done I was done too. I just wanted to go home to bed. I was still going to put in at least 8 hours on the Acura the next day and I was ready for sleeping. I was also upset about the fight I'd had with Suki. While it had felt good to kick her ass, it also made me think of Mr. Marks and what he'd told me.  
  
'There are always going to be people who don't like you, who get 'in your face'. You can not beat up every last one of them.'  
  
'You must learn to control that temper if you're ever going to make something of yourself.'  
  
'When you have something everyone else wants you must accept the fact that others will try to take it from you. Have enough confidence in yourself to just let it slide.'  
  
Here I was still fighting out my battles with my fists not my mind. But I had made something of myself so he wasn't totally right about me either. I shook my head and looked around through weary eyes. I was both physically exhausted and emotionally drained. Soul searching is hard work.  
  
I saw Brian talking to his sister off to one side and it looked deep. Brian looked my way a few times. I hate thinking they're talking about me. I shouldn't care but it makes me wonder what they're saying. I decided to head out before I had to think about it more. I've had enough emotion for a year. I went looking for Tej, figuring he could tell everyone where I was if they asked.  
  
I found Rome instead. Or should I say he found me.  
  
"Hey girl. I guess you weren't kidden when you said you were a good racer huh?"  
  
"Nope. It's what I do. I build the cars I race the cars. That's about all there is to me."  
  
"That's a bit oversimplified don't ya think?"  
  
"Not really, no. So, I'm headed home, just wanted to let someone know so ya'll don't hang around looking for me later whenever you all leave."  
  
"You're not gonna come party at Tej's? I mean, you won all three of the races. You have to come to the party." Rome looked disappointed.  
  
"Man, I'm so tired. I gotta get to bed. I have at least 8 hours worth of work to do to the Acura tomorrow."  
  
"Knock off the Acura for tomorrow and then you can come party with us since you won. I mean, you're ahead of schedule on the Acura anyway so it's not like you can't afford to take a day off."  
  
"Ahead of schedule now doesn't mean that something won't go horribly horribly wrong tomorrow or the next day and set me behind schedule. I want the car ready to go to the body shop by the end of tomorrow so I can start on the engine."  
  
"Aw girl..." Rome started to whine then the ringing in my pants pocket cut him off. I forgot to turn off the damn cell phone. Now I guess I should answer it.  
  
"'Cuse me." I said to Rome and answered the call. "'Lo?"  
  
"Letty?" Jesse asked.  
  
"Hey Jess. How's it goin?"  
  
"Fine. How's the car? Everything ok? Did it work alright? Is it still in one piece?"  
  
"The car is fine, everything is fine, it worked fine, it's still in one piece just fine." I laughed.  
  
"That's good to know." Jesse did sound relieved. "Don't forget to take it right back down to where it was boost wise."  
  
"God Jesse I know I know. I'm not going to ruin my own ride you know."  
  
"I know Letty. But I was worried. So how'd your race go? Did you beat the girl?"  
  
"Yeah. I raced three times and won all three."  
  
"Wow, you got in three races and no cops came?"  
  
"Yeah, things work a little different here."  
  
"So, what's this girl you were so worried about drive?"  
  
"A Honda s2000." I kicked myself as soon as it left my mouth. Jesse is still a bit, well, strange over the whole Tran thing. He still worries about what his dad will do when he finds out what happened to the Jetta. Jesse hasn't been able to fix it and he won't let anyone else do it. "I'm sorry Jess."  
  
"It's ok Lett. It's the car you raced right? They didn't stop making those cars just because I had a bad experience."  
  
"Sometimes you surprise me Kiddo. Yeah, it's what she drove. But guess what? The fricken thing is hot pink with an anime portrait of the chick on the side."  
  
"No shit?"  
  
"For real."  
  
"Why were you worried about beating her then? I mean, a hot pink car?"  
  
"She's not bad. She wasn't far behind me."  
  
"So what other cars did you race?"  
  
"An RX-7, an eclipse spyder, a supra, another RX-7, an Evo, an Acura Integra, a WRX, and a 350z."  
  
"Wow, that's an alright line up."  
  
"Yep. But I beat em all."  
  
"Ok Letty, I'll let you go now, I just wanted to remind you to fix the car before you drove it again."  
  
"Thanks Jess. I'll talk to you soon. Bye."  
  
I hung up.  
  
"So who's Jesse?" Rome asked.  
  
"A friend." I didn't want to talk about my team to Brian's team right then.  
  
"Oh, so he helped you do that crazy shit to your car did he."  
  
"Yeah." I guess Rome didn't want to take the hint. "You ever heard Brian talk about 'The Mad Scientist'?"  
  
"Yeah, the 'if this guy can't make the car do it then it can't be done' guy?"  
  
"Yeah, him. Well, that's Jesse."  
  
"Ah." Rome got it.  
  
"Well, I'm out. See you guys tomorrow. Tell Bri where I went if you see him would you?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
And with that Rome let me leave after giving me an enigmatic look.  
  
I went home and went to bed. I hadn't been kidding when I told Rome I was tired and needed sleep before I got up tomorrow to go to work. Just because I was ahead of the game right then didn't mean that I couldn't fall behind somehow and miss my deadline.  
  
I had been thinking about the design for the NSX since I sort of convinced Tej to let me do it and it was really important to me. If I didn't get to do it I was going to be really upset about it. I was willing to not have much of a life till it was done. It was a sacrifice but I was learning a lot about myself as I did it.  
  
That's why I'm here after all so I may as well make the most of it.  
  
I guess I fell asleep right after because before I knew it voices in the boat were waking me up. I checked the clock and it was 4am.  
  
"You have my bed and I'll sleep on the couch." I heard Brian try to whisper. I guess he must be drunk because the whispering thing was not working out for him.  
  
"I'll take the couch, you sleep in your bed." His sister 'whispered' back. She wasn't exactly sober either I don't think. I envy them both. I would have loved to go get drunk instead of heading home to bed like I had. I haven't been really drunk in a long time. It would be a great stress reliever.  
  
"No way. You take the bed."  
  
"Shush, you'll wake her." Ok, so Fiona isn't ok with me as she let on at races when I patched up her car. That was catty.  
  
Of course I can't really blame her. I'd be mad if anyone ever did something that took cars away from Leon or Jesse like we took police work away from Brian and they're like my brothers. I guess I kinda know how she feels. But I don't have to be thrilled about it.  
  
"What do you have against Letty?" Brian was talking now in what I'm sure he thought were his normal tones but due to his intoxicated state was really more like yelling.  
  
"Her and her idiot boyfriend are the reason why you aren't a cop anymore and the reason why Dad is all flipped out at you. What am I supposed to do, fall in love with her?"  
  
"That's not fair! I did what I did. No one made me give Dom my keys. I fucked up Fi and it's not fair for you to blame poor Letty."  
  
They were yelling at each other and now I feel bad for being the reason that two siblings so obviously close to each other are fighting.  
  
"But that idiot Dom was the one breaking the law! And that girl and the rest of them went along with him. I mean, she use to date him. And he just played you into liking him so you'd let him go!"  
  
"So now the truth comes out. You think I'm some sort of idiot that anyone can walk all over?"  
  
"Well, she's living here isn't she? I mean really Brian, you don't even see you should hate them for what they did to you?"  
  
"What they did to me? What about what I did to them?"  
  
"You mean like how you threw away your career and let them all get away, then let them get off the hook for the stupid thing they did? Then gave her a place to stay?"  
  
"How about how I lied to them all, made friends with them all, all with the sole intent of screwing them over?"  
  
"It was your fuckin job to do that Brian!" Fiona shrieked. "You wanted to be a detective just like daddy and that is what detectives do!"  
  
"It wasn't my fuckin job to fall in love with or make love to Dom's sister!" Brian yelled back.  
  
He feels guilty about that part. I can tell. It was more the fact that he fell for Mia when he knew he had no business doing so that was making him upset.  
  
"What!? You did what?"  
  
So Fiona hadn't known about Mia.  
  
"That's right. I started dating Dom's sister under my alias and I fell for her hard. I couldn't detach myself. I love her and it would have killed her to see her brother go to jail again. It would have killed Dom to go and then Letty and Mia would have been lost. I watched Jesse almost get killed. I mean, as far as I knew he did get killed. I watched Vince almost bleed to death and I didn't know if he lived or died either. I could have stopped them. I could have levelled with them and had them stop, warned them they were about to be caught but I didn't. I kept trying to play both sides till the end and because of it a good kid almost died, a man I looked up to almost lost his best friend, the woman I love almost lost her brother and I lost her."  
  
"Brian, you were only doing your job and those people used you to get away with breaking the law. We're not talking about a few street races here Brian; we're talking about stealing millions worth of stuff and assaulting truck drivers."  
  
They were still yelling at each other and it was breaking me down inside. It's all my fault. I stuck my head under my pillow to try and not hear but the walls are pretty much like paper on a boat and nothing I did could save me from hearing them yell at each other. I guess I could turn on my radio but then they'd know I've heard it all and I really don't want that either.  
  
They think I can't hear them I think; they're both so drunk that they think they're being quiet would be my guess. Or, at this point I guess the more likely scenario is they're so into fighting each other they just don't care that I can hear every word.  
  
"You don't know them! You don't know Dom or why he felt he had to do it!"  
  
"He felt he had to do it because he's a greedy bastard who wanted money Brian. Don't go giving this asshole more credit then he deserves!"  
  
I wonder if she knows anything about Dom or if she's just going solely on the whole truck thing.  
  
"Fiona, it's time I told you about Dominic Toretto and his family ok. You don't know shit about him."  
  
"I know what I need to know Brian. He was a petty criminal stealing stuff instead of getting a real job that used you to get out of what he did."  
  
"How about how he lost his dad in a lethal car accident when he was just a kid and had to watch him burn to death? How that left him only 20 and raising his 16 year old sister? Then how he saw the guy who caused the accident a week later and ended up having words with him that turned into a fight that left Dom doing two years for assault not knowing who was going to take care of Mia. Or Letty, whom Dom's father had been raising since she was 10 since her own parents couldn't be bothered?"  
  
I wonder who told Brian about that. Well, on second thought it would be Mia.  
  
"That's a sad story Brian but it wasn't your fault any of that happened and there were other things he could have done that didn't involve highway robbery."  
  
Fiona was still screaming at her brother. I was still wishing the floor would just open up and let me fall into a world where I didn't have to hear them yell at each other about me.  
  
"You don't know what it's like to have a little sister to take care of Sis, but I do. And I know where Dom was coming from. He got banned off the tracks for life because of the mistakes he made and that was the only thing he ever wanted to do with his life, so he turned to street racing. But it's an expensive thing to be into as you know. And Dom had his own car to worry about plus Letty's and Vince's and plus he took in Jesse and Leon when they had no where else to go. And Mia's so smart, he always wanted her to go to med school and that was gonna cost money too. And the garage did ok but he knew he could never make enough street racing and running a garage to keep all the cars on the road and send Mia to a good college."  
  
"There are student loans and learning to live on what you can make honestly Brian. They didn't have to do what they did!"  
  
"No, they didn't. But I can also see where Dom was coming from and I didn't have to get in so deep either. I fucked up too and that's why I did what I did. I mean, I had enough evidence to turn them in long before I did but I didn't because I kept hoping that I was wrong. And if I'd turned them in as soon as I was sure then Jesse wouldn't have gotten shot, Vince wouldn't have ended up hurt, Letty wouldn't have ended up hurt, no one would have had to run away."  
  
"God Brian, I don't want to talk about it anymore if you're gonna just refuse to see reason about it. Just don't expect me to approve it any of it, including you having her here. I mean, her attitude stinks. It's her friends and her fault that you lost your job and she acts like she doesn't even care. She's all stuck up, so much attitude."  
  
"No one asked you to approve, and if you just got to know Letty, you'd like her as much as I do. She's not all attitude, she's a very nice person who's been through a hell of a lot of shit in the last few weeks."  
  
"Whatever. Good night."  
  
"Yeah, 'night."  
  
I guess they decided that Brian should have his bed because I heard him sigh in his room a few minutes later.  
  
Man my life is fucked up. First Dom leaves me, then I leave California, then I find Brian, but then I get this fucked up test from Tej, then I get to race and win, but then I find out Brian has a sister who hates me and now they're fighting and it's all my fault. Not to mention I beat the face off Brian's friend and he's gonna find out about that tomorrow I'm sure. Then he'll be mad at me too. Not that he didn't have reasons before that.  
  
I want Van. Whenever things got messed up in my life before he died he always knew what to do or what to say. He'd know just what to do to make this better. Of course if he hadn't died then none of this ever would have happened because Dom would be racing on the track not in the street and we never would have pulled the whole truck heists anyway.  
  
But now here's Brian, who's been nothing but good to me since I got here and because of me he's fighting with his little sister who he obviously loves very much. I told myself I shouldn't care, that it's not really my fault or my problem. But I do care. I don't want to see them fighting and I don't want to see her knowing that all the while she's thinking about how much she hates me inside.  
  
The more I think about it the sadder I get. And the sadder I get the more hopeless my whole life looks. And then I start to cry. And once I start I can't stop. And when I can't stop I get even more upset and I start to cry harder. And then I get worried that someone will hear and I try to be quiet. And the more I try to be quiet the louder I am.  
  
I still had my head under my pillow and I was trying so hard to be quiet that I guess I missed the door to my room opening. So when the bed dipped down under someone's weight it sort of scared me a bit and I gasped.  
  
"Sush Letty. It's ok." Brian started rubbing my back. "You have another nightmare?"  
  
I shook my head no without thinking then wished I could take it back. Brian was gonna put two and two together and realize I'd heard them. I made a pathetic sort of gaspy noise that people make when they try to stop crying. I was so ashamed of myself for sounding like a whiney kid.  
  
"Oh god, you heard everything didn't you?" Brian's even quicker then I though.  
  
I nodded yes since he already knows and why else would I be crying. Brian lay down behind me and put his arms around me, resting his chin on my head.  
  
"I'm sorry you had to hear that Reina. I wish you hadn't."  
  
"I'm sorry for making you and you sister fight." I stammered out.  
  
"You didn't make us fight Lett. It's all on her and I. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."  
  
"No, she's right. The mess you're in is all our fault. If Dom hadn't been doing what he was doing and if the rest of us hadn't gone along with him then none of this would have happened."  
  
"Maybe Let, maybe not. No one will ever know for sure. And the mess I'm in is all my own fault. Letty, I had a job to do and I didn't do it. You guys didn't make me do that, I just did it. I shouldn't have made friends with you guys for real, I shouldn't have fallen for Mia, and when those things started to happen I should have gotten out. I didn't and I knew better. So everyone made mistakes girl."  
  
"But everything is so messed up and it's mostly my fault. If I hadn't been such a bitch to Dom maybe he wouldn't have broken up with me."  
  
"Letty." Brian said my name on a sigh. "I really believe that Dom just wanted to try and save you some pain. He knew he was hurting you and he wanted to try and stop. I don't think he decided he didn't love you anymore."  
  
"I miss him so much. Him and V and Jesse and Leon and Mia. I'm lost without them." I was so upset it was making me say things I would not normally have admitted to.  
  
"I know you do girl. But you're gonna be ok. It's ok to be upset about this whole situation Letty. I mean, you lost your whole family in one day and now you're here in the middle of strangers. It's ok to feel out of place. It'll get better. You got me and I know that Rome would do anything for you."  
  
"I know I got you Brian, and it's the only thing keeping me sane."  
  
"It'll look better in the morning Let. Try to get some sleep. I'm sorry you had to hear the fight. I know you got enough of it back home without hearing me and Fi go at it too."  
  
"S'ok." I slurred, already starting to succumb to the comfort of having Brian comfort me and the warmth of his arms holding me.  
  
"You want me to stay with you till you fall asleep?" Brian asked.  
  
"Yeah." I answered him in a small voice.  
  
"Ok. Good night Reina, I'll see you in the morning."  
  
The last thing I remember is Brian giving me a sisterly kiss on the top of my head as I fell asleep. 


	25. Faces in the Crowd

Chapter 25 – Faces in the Crowd  
  
After my horrible night with Brian my time seemed to fly by. The guys made me take Sunday off from the Acura. I protested but they said there was no way they were letting me work on the car 7 days a week.  
  
Things were going well on the car anyway. The setbacks I'd been worried about hadn't happened.  
  
Well, they hadn't so far. The car was gone to the body shop and the mammoth engine was bolted to a stand in the back of the shop. I was taking my time with it. I wanted every last part of it to be perfect.  
  
I wanted it to be ready to go into the car as soon as it got back from its stay with Tej's friend. I knew it wasn't likely to be, but I have a week left of the time Tej gave me so unless I run into trouble with getting the engine back into the car.  
  
Or I forget how to put the engine back together, or some of my parts I ordered don't show.  
  
Dom always said I worried too much about the details. I guess it comes from being the only one to worry about the details. Dom worried about the money but he left the details to chance. I couldn't live that way so I was always planning and worrying.  
  
If Dom promised a car would be ready in a certain amount of time he'd just order the parts, start the job and hope that it all came together. It mostly did, but what Dom never seemed to realize is it did because I was always following up with Harry to make sure the parts got ordered and were on the way, and to be sure we didn't over book the garage.  
  
Like I said, Dom had lots of worries, but mostly about our cars and money. The simple day to day worries like stock for the store and running the garage fell to me. It was kind of nice to just be worrying about one car not ten for a change. Thank god for Mia.  
  
This one time, well the day Brian showed up with the supra, Mia was trying, without success to get Dom to deal with the accounts payable for our parts and customer service bills. But like always when he was in 'mechanic' mode he didn't want to make time for dealing with it and told her to hold off on it.  
  
But a lot more was riding on this car then the typical ten from DT. The people who owned the cars in our shop would be a bit annoyed if we took an extra day to fix their rides. If I took an extra day to fix this one I was out of a job.  
  
And on that thought I striped the last piece off the second head of the engine and stood up with a smile and a groan for my poor back.  
  
I was ready to send the heads out to be planed and then start to reassemble everything with the bigger and better parts I'd ordered for it last week.  
  
At least the car was going my way. Everything else was going down the shitter but not the Acura.  
  
Fiona hadn't spoken to me since race night. I think, strangely enough she was embarrassed about having said what she did while I could hear her. Of course, in a lot of ways she deserved to be embarrassed.  
  
Brian was an adult. An adult who could make up his own mind about what he wanted to do and how. If he wanted to have me around then it was his business. And he's right. He messed up too.  
  
Not as bad as we did, I know. But he still did. He loves Mia and that's not for his sister to like or not like. Or at least, not for her to decided for him. I suppose she can have as many opinions on it as she wants, but she doesn't have to share them.  
  
She and Brian haven't really been talking and I think it's my fault. But when I told Brian that he told me to be quiet and that he and his sister would work things out like they always did. I think he was more then a little pissed off at her attitude himself.  
  
But so I avoided Fiona, worked on a car and talked pretty much only to Brian and Rome for that whole week. It wasn't much fun, but it kept me busy. Rome took me out to dinner a few more times and once we saw another movie. Fiona didn't seem to like that much either. Makes me wonder if maybe she had a thing for Rome herself.  
  
She sure gave me a dirty look from the couch when Rome walked me home from the car after the movie. He walked into the house with me and ruffled her hair. It was plain to me that he loved her like a sister. It was also becoming more apparent she wished he'd love her like more then that.  
  
Oh joy, yet another reason she'll have to hate me. I don't even plan on staying with Rome for long and she likely knows that. So it'll look like I'm just using the man she wants. Not only that but he doesn't see her as a woman, but he clearly sees me that way. Maybe someday when he realizes that I'm not the girl for him he'll see Fiona the way she wishes he would.  
  
But for now I get to put up with her being mad at me for so many reasons I've lost count.  
  
"Night." I told Rome as he went to leave the house.  
  
"Night Lett. You back to the car tomorrow?"  
  
"You know it." I sighed.  
  
"Maybe I'll give you a hand."  
  
"Thanks. But I want to do this one alone. Next time."  
  
"Ok." Rome smiled, ran a finger down my cheek and left the boat. I went to bed before I had to put up with miss broody. I spend a lot of time in my room that week too.  
  
I snapped out of it and looked at the engine again. I cleaned the heads off in our parts washer and then sent them to the machine shop by courier. Again, Tej knew the guy who owned the machine shop so the heads would be back later that afternoon. Everything got rushed when it was for tej.  
  
I started putting the new rings on the pistons that were ok. Some of them had to be replaced and the replacements aren't in yet. I really hope that the new pistons I had to order for it come in today like they're supposed to. Not to mention I don't have the head gaskets yet.  
  
I mean, before I know it the car will be back and I won't have the engine ready to drop into it at this rate. But that's just me being paranoid. I am a worrier. I think, in some ways that's why I like Rome. He's the polar opposite to a worrier and it's almost like he cancels some of me out when we're just having fun together.  
  
But no matter how fun he is he can't make me forget how much I miss my team. I really miss them. Things just aren't the same around here. I miss the team atmosphere, the camradiery that we had back home. The way we fought and teased and helped each other. It make work more like family social hour a lot of the time. Around here it's sort of just like any other 9 to 5 lately.  
  
I got most of the engine cleaned, ground all the valves, polished the intake manifold, and then realized it was lunch time. I had just been planning to do what I'd been doing most days since I started the engine of the Acura for lunch: eating a sandwich at my work bench so that I wouldn't lose too much time. But since the pistons and gaskets had to come before I could go much further I figured I'd take a nice drive in Ray and maybe take a little walk on the boardwalk for something to do.  
  
I grabbed my keys and my sweater, slid on my shades and headed out with a little wave to Tej and Jimmy so they'd know I went out. Tej didn't ever seem to mind when I took off without telling him where I was going or when I'd be back. He just let me do my own thing, and for once that was nice. I was in the mood to be alone for awhile. Plus it was nice to be treated like an adult who could decide when she could take lunch, when she could work late or go early. Tej was letting me do my project my way. He'd told me what to do and when to have it done. Now he was leaving it up to me to get it done on time. Not micromanaging me every second of the day.  
  
I hit the freeway running and just drove for a while. The wind rushed in the open windows and I weaved in and out of the other cars on the road like they were pylons and I was running the slalom. I picked an exit and used it to turn around and head back to town. When I got back I got some lunch then I took off my sweater, tossed it in the car and went for a walk on the boardwalk.  
  
It was a beautiful day. We hadn't had much but beautiful days since I got into Miami so I don't know why I'm acting like a nice sunny day is a big deal. A rainy day would be a bigger shock then the sun is right now. But still the sun felt good on my bare shoulders.  
  
I stood looking over the water for a while, just thinking. Not really about much in particular. You ever do that? Just stand or sit somewhere and think, then stop and realize you haven't really thought about anything. You didn't plan anything, or figure anything out or come to any deep discoveries. You haven't been philosophical, or smart, or solved world hunger or granted world peace. You've just killed time thinking about not much at all.  
  
Well, that's what I did on the boardwalk. I guess I likely thought about something, but I have no idea what it was. But then with a mental sigh I figured it was time to go back to the wonderful world of Tej's garage. It's not that I don't like it there. If I didn't then I wouldn't be killing myself to prove I can do the job. It's just that this car is fast becoming the bane of my existence. Things don't arrive, they don't come apart like they should, they don't go back together the way they should...But I'm making it look easy and so far I have been able to figure it all out on my own.  
  
I merged myself into the ebbing flow of humanity that was also taking a stroll on the boardwalk that afternoon and headed back toward where I'd left my car. It was again strange to just be a person in the crowd. No one knew me and no one cared. I may as well have been invisible to all the people around. I felt pretty isolated in that moment. Just another Latina girl in a city full of them. Just another person in the crowd, just another face.  
  
I happened to look up at the heads of the people in front of me and found myself doing a double take. There was a man in front of me a few feet, with a few people between us, who I would swear I knew. But I didn't know anyone in Miami other then Brian, Rome and the rest of the gang from Tej's, and this guy wasn't from Tej's.  
  
But the build of the man screamed out 'you know me!', the way he walked said 'we've met'. He had shaggy light brown hair, and a fairly buff build. If I didn't know better I'd swear it was Vince. But Vince is home in L.A. right? He can't be in Miami. Can he?  
  
I started to panic. What if it was Vince? What should I do? Should I hide? Should I try to get in front of him and see if it is him or just someone with the same shaggy hair cut? What's gonna happen to things if it is him?  
  
Fuck it, if it's Vince then he's here. He's likely gonna find me anyway. He's just gotta go to any garage with an import out front and ask if there's a new s14 on the scene doing a lot of winning. Then he'll have me, and at Tej's to make it even better. I might be able to talk to him around here in neutral territory and send him home if I talk to him here. If it's even him.  
  
And if it is him, I don't want to know what'll happen if he meets up with Brian. Vince never liked Brian. He liked him even less after the whole 'hey I was a cop' thing Brian pulled at the end of things.  
  
Ok, well, no way around it, I need to know if it's him.  
  
"Vee?" I called. Not too loud, but loud enough that I know the guy will hear me. It it's not him he won't look. If it is him then he'll turn around. Boy thinks Vee is his name for crying out loud. He's only called Vince by Dom and when we're mad at him.  
  
After I called he stopped walking. Not good.  
  
He turned around slowly and there I was looking into the baby blues of Vince.  
  
He smiled and I ran at him. He caught me and picked me up around the waist spinning me around in a happy circle.  
  
"Letty!" He called happily.  
  
"Vee!" Ok, I should be mad. And I will be. But for now I'm just so happy to see him I don't care how he found me or what will happen. I haven't seen him in over two weeks and I missed him. I kissed his cheeks and threw my head back laughing. My Vee found me.  
  
It should suck. And it will. Just not yet.  
  
"You know, you are one hard girl to find."  
  
"That was the point Vee. I didn't want you guys to find me."  
  
"I know. But I had to check it out when some punk came into the garage saying he just had his ass beat down by a girl in a purple s14 in Miami."  
  
"So you didn't dig?" I cocked one eyebrow, clearly not believing him.  
  
"I swear I didn't. You didn't say I couldn't visit if I found you honestly." Vince tried to look sweet and innocent. It didn't work. Innocent is one look that Vince will never be able to pull off.  
  
"Don't pull that angel crap with me Vincent. I know you're anything but."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, ok. But I swear I didn't dig to find you. You covered your tracks pretty good Let. It was some punk in a Toyota MR-2 who came in after he busted his rear seal and happened to complain about a girl who'd won his car and sold it back to him that made me clue in it was you."  
  
"I shoulda known I couldn't race and win and not have some info about it get back to L.A. How'd you keep if from Dom?"  
  
"Who says I did."  
  
"Vince, not even funny. If Dom is around here somewhere then I'm out."  
  
"I didn't tell Dom. I value not being dead too much for you to find out I let Dom find you. I just told him that I had to go scout out something for the Maxima."  
  
"And he bought that?"  
  
"Seemed to. He hasn't been the same since you left."  
  
"Is this gonna turn into an attempt to make me pity him again?"  
  
"Only if it'll work and make you come home with me."  
  
"How would I go home with you Vee? I have my car and you have yours."  
  
"I flew."  
  
"You what!?" Vince hates to fly anywhere. He hates airplanes. Of course, he's not scared. No, not big tough coyote. He just would rather drive is all.  
  
"I flew out here. Well, I drove into Texas so Dom would think I drove and then I took a plane from Texas to Miami."  
  
"When did you get smart?" I asked in a smart tone.  
  
"I always been smart, just don't tell on me." Vince winked at me, put an arm around me and started me walking with him. "So, where you stayin and do I get to meet the mysterious 'B' that Dom hasn't been able to stop bitchin about since you and him had your big fight on the phone."  
  
"I'm staying somewhere close to the water, no you don't get to meet B."  
  
"Why not? He weird? You ashamed of where you live?"  
  
No, I don't want you to kill my roomie, I thought. How am I gonna get rid of Vince in one day? He's not gonna want to shove off right away. He's gonna want to stay with me for a few I'd be willing to bet.  
  
"No he's not weird. But well, we don't have a lot of room and I'm really busy at work. I don't have time to visit right now Vince. I mean, you knew I wanted my space."  
  
"Yeah, but I wanted to know you were ok. And to check out where you're working and who you're staying with. You shoulda known that I wouldn't let you just stay with strangers and work for them too. I need to look out for you Let."  
  
"Vince, I can look out for myself. Didn't you realize one of the reasons I needed a break from Dominic was because he always tried to 'look out for me' till I felt smothered?"  
  
"I don't think wanting to check out the people your with to make sure they aren't gonna mistreat my girl is smothering you. Besides, I brought my guitar. Don't miss me playing songs for you?"  
  
"Yeah, ok, but I'da come home sooner or later."  
  
"Yeah, but now we can hang out in Miami for awhile and you don't have to miss me till you come back."  
  
"Who says I ever missed you?"  
  
"You told me you did, remember."  
  
"Nope." I lied, not wanting to admit that I'd admitted I missed him in my moment of weakness.  
  
We reached my car at that point. And there, standing against it was Rome. Oh fuck.  
  
Here's Vince, with his arm around me smiling and occasionally playing with a piece of my hair in that friendly older brother way he has with me that looks friendlier then it is and there is Rome, looking at us from his position beside my car in a way that can only be described as territorial. This is not going to be good. 


	26. One Catch

Chapter 26 – One Catch  
  
We walked up to my car and Rome stood up off my hood.  
  
"Hey." I said to Rome, feeling lame. I was also feeling panic. How was I going to get out of this one? Not only that but how was I going to get the message to Rome not to say anything about Brian to Vince.  
  
"Hey." Rome answered with an almost angry glance at Vince.  
  
"Roman Pierce, Vince Casaletto. Vince, Rome." I introduced them and made a wide eyed face at Rome, trying to make him realize who Vince was. I hoped that if he knew who Vince was he'd know it was important not to mention Brian. "I work with Rome at the garage I told you about." I told Vince. "And Vince is one of my friends from L.A. I told you about." I explained to Rome, hoping it would be enough for him to know not to say anything.  
  
The guys shook hands.  
  
"Nice to meet you." Rome told Vince.  
  
"Same." Vince told Rome and it wasn't the nicest thing he's ever said. His tone left something to be desired.  
  
"We got worried when you never came back from lunch. It's not like you to take off for so long." Rome told me, gaze unreadable.  
  
"I ran into Vince here and lost track of time. Is Tej pissed?"  
  
"Naw girl, you hardly take breaks or lunches. You could take a day off and Tej wouldn't get pissed."  
  
I smiled. "Vince, how'd you get here? Can I give you a lift somewhere before I go back to work?"  
  
"You're gonna blow me off that fast Letty? I just got here. Your friend Rome here says that you could take a day off and no one would care. Show me around the place and where you stay."  
  
"Veeeeee." I whined. He had to be pushy. He's the most stubborn guy I've ever met. He never gives. He's like a dog with a bone, he won't give up till he gets his way. He just looked at me, waiting for me to give in and give him his way.  
  
"Will you be home later Letty? I wanted to ask you something." Rome told me.  
  
Not now Rome, I wanted to say. That would just make Vince even more curious to know what was up.  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure I will be."  
  
"Ok, well I'll call you later." I let Rome walk away till he was to his car, then I called after him.  
  
"One sec!" I told Rome and turned to Vince. "Wait here one second. I forgot something."  
  
I ran up to Rome and Vince stood his ground with his arms crossed. He didn't approve of me knowing Rome but I didn't really care. My life was finally only my own.  
  
"Rome, I don't know what I'm gonna do but he can't know I stay with Brian. He'll kill him. Can you warn Bri he's in town and tell Bri to call me on my cell? He just showed up out of the blue and I don't know what I'm gonna do."  
  
I think Rome could tell how panicked I was getting about the whole situation.  
  
"I'll go back and find Brian. He was talking about taking a trip down to his parents with Fi anyway to try and smooth things over, maybe now would be a good time for him to do that."  
  
"That would be perfect. But go talk to him and have him call me please."  
  
"Can do Let. I'll see you at the garage later anyway. Don't kill yourself over that stupid car."  
  
"I won't. Thanks for everything Rome."  
  
"No sweat." With a quick tug on my hair Rome got in his car and left. I walked back up to Vince.  
  
"Ok Coyote, let's go."  
  
"Where we goin?"  
  
"To see Miami of course. Isn't that what you said you wanted to do?"  
  
"Yeah. But you're forgetting the whole see where you work and live part."  
  
"Well, first we'll see Miami then I'll call home and tell B I want to have someone over."  
  
"Why can't we just show up?" Vince was seeing through all the holes in my story and it was pissing me off.  
  
"Because it's his place and I stay with him. I don't want to just show up and have the place be a mess or something."  
  
"Let, you've seen my room. I don't think a mess is likely to bother me."  
  
True that. Vince lived in some sort of chaos that was organized only to him. He knew where everything was but it looked like a twister came into his room and dumped everything everywhere on the floor. He would not notice what constituted a mess to the average person.  
  
"Yeah, ok, but it will bother me."  
  
"Fine. Where are the good clubs and where does racing happen?"  
  
"There are good clubs everywhere and racing happens in a warehouse district. Why do you care? You didn't bring your car."  
  
"No but you have this."  
  
"You are not racing Ray." He made a pouty face at me. "No, get the idea out of that thick skull right now."  
  
"Leeetttt."  
  
"Don't Let me. You wanted to race you shoulda brought the Maxima."  
  
"Yeah I shoulda. You know Jesse has it down to 11 seconds? He keeps that up it will run 9's."  
  
"No shit. 11 seconds? Dom having kittens yet?"  
  
Vince laughed. "Yeah, but he hid it behind his wall of 'still can't touch me coyote' calm."  
  
I laughed. "You'll never be able to take him anyway Vince. Car could run 5's and he'd still win."  
  
"I know that Letty. Being best at racing is one thing I wouldn't take away from him no matter what. Not even if I could. Everything else he has is fair game." Vince chuckled.  
  
"Everything?" I cocked one eyebrow.  
  
"Yeah. We been like that since we were kids. You know that."  
  
"You ever think about taking me from him?" I asked, slyly. I mean he said everything.  
  
"Once or twice." Vince said and chuckled. "Just to show him I could do it if I wanted to."  
  
"No offence Vee but you couldn't have, not even if you wanted to."  
  
"I know." Vince answered, serious. Then he answered me to lighten the mood. "But Dom don't know that. Let's keep it that way."  
  
"Ok. A little healthy competition never hurt anyone. So, how's everyone else?"  
  
"Well, Leon's adjusting ok. The kid misses you a lot. Mia's in a funk and I don't know what to do about it."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, it's not like Mia to be depressed like she has been. I know how hard 'the asshole' being a cop and leaving her hit her but she wasn't this depressed over it till you left. But hell, you two haven't been separated for more then a day since you met."  
  
"I know. I miss her too. This girl at my work hates me so I have no girls around to talk to."  
  
"Then just come home."  
  
"Vince. Is this gonna turn into a whole let's harass Letty into coming home fest? Cause if so you may as well just go home now. It won't work."  
  
"But Letty, nothing is right when you're not around."  
  
"If I could go home and just be on the team then I would V. But I can't be around him and not be his girl right now. I was with him too long to get use to not being with him while he's right there talking to me every day."  
  
"But he misses you too."  
  
"Vince, when he called here he told me to come home because you guys missed me. If he can't even admit he misses me how can he be ready for the kind of serious relationship I need if I come back?"  
  
"He's hurting that you left Let. You know how he is when he's hurting. He just tries to act like everything is fine."  
  
"Yeah, well, this time he has to learn to talk to me about what's going on in that thick skull and let me in on what's up. I can't live my life guessing how he feels and trying to anger him into showing me he even has feelings."  
  
"It's always been the main trouble the two of you had, you having too much emotion too close to the surface and him not enough."  
  
"I don't even see it that way Vince. I don't like to let on when people hurt me either, but I still don't try to pretend that evything is fine all the time."  
  
"I know Letty. Is that what it will take for you to come back? For Dom to admit he missed you."  
  
"And wants me back for himself, yes. Not that he wants me back because the shop doesn't work as well when I'm not in it or because you guys and Mia need me. He needs to admit he wants me back because he really needs me too."  
  
"I guess I understand."  
  
"V, how could you understand that when you never had a girl in your life for longer then 8 hours?"  
  
"Shut up!" Vince yelled and messed up my hair. I pulled up to the beach and boardwalk. We got out of the car. "Where are we?"  
  
"The beach. I though you weren't stupid."  
  
"There's a lot of bikini's here." Vince observed as we walked.  
  
"No Vince, there are a lot of nice looking girls in bikinis. Maybe that's why you can't get a girl. That and that scruffy beard and hairdo."  
  
"I could have any girl I wanted back home and you know it."  
  
"I know no such thing." We were gonna keep fighting about it but then my normal cell went off. I pulled it out and answered it.  
  
"'Lo?" I answered the call.  
  
"Hey Reina. I guess you got some mess on your hands huh?"  
  
"You can say that again B."  
  
"I'm gonna do what Rome suggested and go home to talk to my mom and dad. I like having my face in the shape it is now."  
  
"I understand."  
  
"There's a catch."  
  
"How's that?"  
  
"Fi won't come with me. She says I have to do it on my own. She's gonna stay here in my room."  
  
"Oh crap. Will she..." I couldn't say anything in front of Vince.  
  
"She knows not to tell him who I am or who she really is yes. She's fine with it."  
  
"I can't see her being fine with it since she hates me but it's good that it's settled." I was still trying to be vague in front of Vince.  
  
"It'll be fine. You can even offer Vince our couch if you want. There's nothing around that would tell him who I am. I was very careful of that when I moved in and was still on the run from the cops."  
  
"What about Tej and the others?"  
  
"They call me Bullit most of the time anyway and I can tell them not to say anything about who I am so they don't. But he wouldn't be up at the shop much anyway would he?"  
  
"Depends. Might want to be."  
  
"Well, I'll remind them and if it gets out then it does and we'll deal. Ok?"  
  
"Sounds good B. Sorry to hear about that." I was setting up to tell Vince that 'B' had a family emergency and wouldn't be around. I closed the cell.  
  
"Who was that?" Vince asked in general curiosity.  
  
"That was B. He has a family emergency and has to go home right away. He's sorry he's gonna miss you, but says that if you don't have anywhere better to stay you can use our couch. But his sister has to stay with us too, but she'll stay in his room."  
  
"Isn't that convenient? That he has to leave the day I want to meet him."  
  
"He couldn't help it Vince. Damn, do you have a place to stay or do you want our couch?"  
  
"I'll take the couch."  
  
"Where's your stuff?"  
  
"Airport."  
  
"Let's go get it then." I told Vince and we headed back down the boardwalk for the car.  
  
This might just work out ok after all. 


	27. She's up to something

Chapter 27 – She's up to something!  
  
We went to the airport and picked up Vince's stuff. He kept trying to get details out of me about who I was working with, living with, seeing.  
  
I just kept putting him off. I didn't want him to know the answers to these things so I mostly gave him dirty looks out of the corner of my eye and drove too fast. My driving too fast doesn't bother Vince at all. He's been driving around Dom too much for me to bother him.  
  
"And who's this Rome guy anyway?" Vince asked.  
  
"Just a guy." I didn't want to talk about this with Vince.  
  
"Just a guy?"  
  
"Yeah, just a guy I know."  
  
"Looked like you more then know him."  
  
"Did it? He's just a friend from work."  
  
"I see. All your friends from work feel free to touch you like he did?"  
  
"No. He's a good friend."  
  
"How good?" Vince did his best Dom icy-calm impression.  
  
"Good. He makes sure I don't work too hard."  
  
"He worken you at home?"  
  
"Vince! Don't be crude. Damn. Besides, it's nonaya."  
  
"Nonaya?"  
  
"Yeah, as in nonaya damn business."  
  
"You're supposed to wanna get back together with Dom."  
  
"And me having friends who are guys isn't likely to change that now is it?"  
  
"Well, this sounds like he's more then just a friend."  
  
"And maybe he is. Dom had like a hundred friends who were girls who were more then friends, that didn't mean anything. Who says I can't have a few?" Vince sighed. He was frustrated with me. Well, too bad. It was none of his business in the first place and he had to push his luck.  
  
"You're not like that Letty."  
  
"Maybe I wasn't. I might be now. Vince, I'm living my life how I wanna. It's no big deal. Besides, you just ticked me off, he's not that good of a friend."  
  
"But he'd like to be."  
  
"Maybe. He's B's best friend so I see a lot of him. He knows what went down, knows the whole story and how do you know he doesn't just want to be a friend, to be there for me."  
  
"It's more likely he thinks playing your shoulder to cry on will get him where he really wants to be. He's using you."  
  
"Who says I'm not using him? Damn, you don't give me much credit for being too smart do you?"  
  
"Letty, guys play games with girls."  
  
"I know that. I mean, games like Dom's played on me and I've seen you play on hundreds of girls. I know how guys play Vince. Who says I'm not using this guy? Maybe I wanted to get some while I was gone so I could rub Dom's nose in it."  
  
"Letty too much info. And that's not why you and this guy know each other is it?"  
  
"He works with me, and I like him. End of discussion."  
  
"End of nothing. I don't want to see you hurt."  
  
"Vince, I'm more likely to hurt him when I end up leaving here to go home ok. Damn, I don't want to talk about this anymore."  
  
"Ok, but if he hurts you at all while I'm here he's as good as dead."  
  
"Anything to get a fight in eh Vince?"  
  
"Damn straight."  
  
And with that we both laughed. He was just being Vince and it felt like home. Annoying, but like home.  
  
We collected his duffle and got back in the car and headed for home. He mostly left me alone on the drive from the airport to the house boat. I was glad for the break. I didn't really want to look too hard at how I felt about Rome. It was fine to know I liked him and liked spending time with him, but how did I really _feel _about Rome? Vince made me wonder about that more then I wanted to. I was happy just having fun with Rome. I didn't want to analyze our relationship.  
  
When we pulled up to Tej's for once I didn't park in the garage, I parked down closer to the boat. I didn't want Vince to have any reason to snoop around the garage. I did wonder what car Brian took to Barstow, or if he flew. I assume his cars are not registered to Bullit, so should Vince see the papers he would likely find out that Brian owned them. I don't want that so Vince can't see Brian's cars.  
  
I lead the way onto the boat. "Well, this is home." I told Vince as I opened the door.  
  
"Cute. You share this with some dude?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"It's pretty small." Vince gave me a look about what living with a 'dude' in a small house meant.  
  
"Yeah, but we're not home much anyway. Is there a guy I could know around here you wouldn't think I was fucking, or who wanted to fuck me?"  
  
"No. You're irrasistable so I know all guys are trying to get in your pants."  
  
"Thanks for the compliment Vince, but no one is trying to get in my pants. But maybe me. I've been eating so good since I got here stuff is getting tight." I answered and pointed to the area under the kitchen table. I noticed he was still shouldering his huge duffle. "Chuck your bag there."  
  
Vince complied and looked around. "Where can I leave this?" He gestured at his guitar case. I pointed to the corner. "You look like you mighta lost weight, not gained any."  
  
"Whateva. Flattering me will not make me go home with you." I looked around the boat.  
  
The place was actually fairly clean. I guess I have Fiona to thank for that. Damn, I don't want to thank her for anything.  
  
"Where am I gonna sleep again?" Vince asked. I pointed out the couch.  
  
"Right there."  
  
"Leeeeettyyyyyy, I'm like 6'2" and that thing is about three feet long."  
  
"I can still make hotel reservations for you." I raised one eyebrow and looked at him.  
  
"I'll sleep on the floor." Vince sighed at me. He's so funny while he pouts.  
  
"Good for you. Good for your back." I told Vince and laughed. "I'm gonna go change then we'll start making supper ok?"  
  
"Sure thing. What we haven?"  
  
"Won't know till I check out the cupboards."  
  
"You're gonna cook?" Vince looked horrified. "I didn't bring the fire extinguisher."  
  
"I do ok here. Not as much to distract me. I only almost burned the place down once."  
  
"Um, hi." I heard from the door and turned to look in that direction. And there was Fiona.  
  
"Hi." I answered and looked at Vince. No hope for it, I'll have to introduce them. "Vince, this is Fiona, Fiona, this is Vince."  
  
Vince smiled his hello ladies smile and stuck out his hand. "Hi there."  
  
"Hi." Fiona answered, not too warmly and shook Vince's hand quickly. I knew she wasn't going to be happy about having him here. As long as she doesn't tell him who she is and who owns the boat it's all good.  
  
"Thanks for picking up around here." I told her, mostly to be polite and try and disquise from Vince the fact she didn't really like me that much.  
  
"It's no problem. I know...My brother can be a bit of a slob."  
  
"Yeah, me too." I answered.  
  
"That and I don't know who convinced her she can cook but now she thinks she can." Vince said and gave me a look.  
  
"I can make dinner for us all if you want." Fiona offered, surprising me. "I never ate yet myself."  
  
"That would be great if you're sure you don't mind." I answered her in some shock.  
  
"It's cool." She started to move around the kitchen area. Vince sat at the table and I went to change.  
  
That sister of Brian's is up to something I know it. Cleaning, offering to cook...It's not like her so it must be bad. I finished with changing my clothes and headed back out to the kitchen.  
  
Yep, cleaning, cooking...**FLIRTING WITH MY VINCE!  
**  
Oh hell no! That's what she had up her slimy little sleeve. She's flirting with Vince. She doesn't like Vince. She hates him same as she hates me. But there she is smiling at him while she listens to him go on about his guitar.  
  
I some how doubt she cares about his guitar but there she is acting like she does.  
  
She can't have him. He's mine. My brother, my Vince. She's just using him anyway. I know he'd hate me for telling anyone but he's not as tough about girls as he lets on. The whole situation with Mia has hurt him worse then he lets on.  
  
I don't want to see him go through liking another girl who'll never like him back. I know Mia just doesn't love him that way and Fiona would be using him but still, it would likely just about break whatever ability he has to love a woman left if Fiona used him like that.  
  
I can't tell him what she's up to without making him wonder why she'd even want to hurt him like that. If I confront her about what she's doing she might just outright tell Vince who she is and who I'm staying with.  
  
I thought this was going to work out. I might have been wrong. This is getting complicated. 


	28. So Complicated

Chapter 28 – So Complicated  
  
AN: Damn am I sorry this took soooo long to get here. I was so busy. Started work, plus had to go to school anyway to try and finish my car...Still not working, but that's another long story. Housekeeping time, go read some stories worth your time...They include, but are not limited to America's Fates, Knights on the Blacktop, Puzzling Pieces, Ultimate Betrayal, and Untimely Revenge. You'll notice I put them in alphabetical order ;) Ok, and to anyone following RIDE, it'll get updated sometime I swear, just had no time for it.  
  
I walked out into the dinning/kitchen area and shot Fiona a dirty look. She refused to meet my gaze. She is up to something and she doesn't want me to see just how far it goes in her eyes. Damn, and Brian said this was going to be ok. I think Brian sees his little sister with rose coloured glasses. He thinks she could do no wrong, but she's got a vindictive soul. I can tell.  
  
"Hey V. You want a drink?" I asked him, to break them up and get his attention back on me. I mean, I'm supposed to be the reason he's even here after all.  
  
"What you got?" Vince asked me and took in my new outfit.  
  
It was one of the one's I'd bought since I came to Miami, and I guess those new cloths I'd bought were slightly different from what I'd worn back home. They were slightly less overtly sexy and slightly more comfortable. Maybe Vince picked up on that, who knows.  
  
"What else bro?" I asked with a grin.  
  
"Hell yeah I want a drink then. Hook a brotha up." Ol Coyote and his Corona, no way to separate the two.  
  
I opened the fridge, grabbed two Coronas and popped them both open, then handed one to Vince. He drained the first quarter in one swallow. I caught Fiona checking him out while he swallowed.  
  
So maybe she thinks Vince is cute too. So what? She still can't have him. Besides I'm sending him home in a day or two. No way is he staying here longer then that. I can't have him here too long. It's enough to worry about him being here for that, if I have to keep worrying about him and the car the car will never get done.  
  
What ever Fiona was cooking smelled good. I didn't want it to. I didn't want to acknowledge there was something she could do well that I couldn't. I took a drink of my beer and caught Fiona looking at me, almost like she thought it was gross.  
  
"You don't drink beer?" I asked her.  
  
"No. God no. I hate beer. I don't know how people drink that stuff." Fiona wrinkled her nose in distaste.  
  
"You don't like Corona?" Vince was in shock, clearly. I think everyone in his world likes Corona.  
  
"No. Unun. I hate beer."  
  
"This isn't beer. It's Corona!" Vince shook his head, trying to get the concept of someone who didn't like beer through his head. He looked at me with this little boy confused look in his blue eyes.  
  
I laughed at him. Couldn't help myself. I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Yep, some people think Corona is beer, and they really don't like it V. It's not a parallel universe or anything."  
  
"I can't believe it." Vince muttered and finished his own Corona.  
  
"Just means there's more for you." I reminded him.  
  
"I guess." He cheered up at that. He pulled me around and pushed me down into a chair. "So, how's life been treating you?"  
  
"We covered this in the car V." I was not going into it with Fiona around for sure. Damn, she knows enough. She does not need more ammo against me.  
  
"We only sort of covered it. You didn't really answer me if these people all treat you good."  
  
"Yes they do Vince, or I woulda left long ago ok. I didn't become a door mat over night you know. If I wouldn't put up with you all being shitty to me I doubt I'd take it from a stranger."  
  
"But you said this Sucky girl is mean to you." Vince looked so sincere. But I couldn't help it. I laughed at him for calling her Sucky. How appropriate.  
  
"It's Suki, and yeah, she's sort of cold to me. But I don't let it get to me. She'll get over it and if she doesn't who cares, I'm going home sometime anyway."  
  
"Well, what does she do to you?"  
  
Why am I letting him continue this conversation in front of Fiona again? She's just going to run to Suki and tell her everything. I don't know if she could help herself. I mean, at least she actually gets along with Suki.  
  
"She doesn't do anything. She's just rude to me by times and clearly doesn't like me."  
  
"Well, why doesn't she like you?"  
  
"Jesus Vince. I don't know! Maybe because I'm a girl who actually knows how to work on cars, maybe because she found out I did the designs on our cars and till now that was only her department around here. Maybe because I can race. I don't really know why. I never had a conversation about it wit her you know?"  
  
"It jus seems weird for her to just not like you because you showed up."  
  
"Vince, lots of people didn't like me in L.A. I got one of those attitudes."  
  
"Letty, lots of girls didn't like you in L.A. because you were dating Dom. It wasn't because of your attitude."  
  
"Vince, every second guy I met ended up wanting to slap me because I wouldn't take his shit. I had lots of enemies in L.A. just because they got the impression I was loud bitch from the first second we met."  
  
I caught Fiona looking at me like she'd love to agree with me. Well, next time I see her and Vince isn't around she's so in for it. She's not gonna go around trying to pick up Vince as a way to get back at me. I won't have it.  
  
If she has issues with me still, she can fucken well take them up with me. I mean that. I'm not one to run away from my problems. Not till they get so bad I don't see any other way. And this thing with Fiona will never get that bad because I won't have it. I'll end things my way long before they ever get to that point.  
  
And if I have to do that Fiona's gonna come out the other end in a far different state then she went in. I still haven't learned not to talk with my fists when I get backed into a corner and riled up. If she gives me a hard time about the whole Vince issue, or tries to let on like she's miss Innocent, the shit is gonna hit the fan.  
  
She comes up to the garage to see Tej and Jimmy all the time so I know I'll get a chance to see her when Vince isn't around. He's not coming to work with me. I'ma put that idea out of his head real quick. I'm not some kid who needs daddy to check out the playground for her.  
  
Before I could get really angry and blow up Fiona put out dinner with a small smile for me and an entirely different sort of smile for Vince. A smile which he lapped up. Thinks he's Don Juan or something.  
  
"So, how's Mia doing?" I wanted to keep Vince talking to me about things that Fiona didn't get so that she'd be the one who felt out of place and like she didn't belong. Her and Suki had been trying to make me feel that way all week and it was nice to flip the script on them.  
  
"She's ok. She was better while you were home. I wish there was something I could do for her Let. I mean, it kills me'n Dom to see her like that all the time but there's nothing we can do for her. You were her rock Let."  
  
"I know, but she'll get stronger V."  
  
"I don't know if she will Let. I thought she would too, but now I'm not so sure. She cries more and more at night when she thinks we don't know."  
  
I cringed at that. Mia wasn't the strong one. I knew it all along. I just figured with Dom and Vince and Leon she'd be ok. Mia was ok to be there for me, for other people, but she really needed someone to be there for her in order to be able to keep it up. And in things like Brian, and any boy troubles, it was me she turned to. Now she had no one to go to at home and I guess I can see how that would get to her. But I can't be there for her every time something goes wrong.  
  
"If I ever see that Brian fucken S...O'Connor again I'm gonna beat the fucken life right out of him. I hate seein her like she is Let. And it's only worse now that you aren't there, aren't being her shoulder and using her to be yours. That little fucken coward O'Connor..."  
  
Vince trailed off into his own dark thoughts and I tried to send apologetic looks behind Vince's back. He didn't know who Fiona was, and if I had my way he wouldn't. But that didn't mean I didn't understand why she'd be upset about hearing her own brother badmouthed. If she badmouthed Dom or Vince I'd be pretty upset.  
  
"Yeah, well, don't forget we were fucking up to V. Blame him for screwing Mia over but don't blame him for trying to do his job."  
  
Ok, so sticking up for Brian wasn't the smartest thing I ever did. But damn it this guy has been crawling into my bed at night to hold me while I sob my heart out over horrible nightmares. It's hard for me to hear him badmouthed, and totally put down without pointing out he has some redeeming qualities.  
  
"When did you become a fan of the punk?" Vince growled.  
  
"Just since I stopped to think about it ok? Damn. You'n Dom had to go ahead and do what you did, and then you got mad when you got caught. I mean, I'm pissed about what he did to Mia too, but I'm not pissed about him trying to bust us anymore. Besides, if he hadn't done something to stop it we'd all be in jail right now, so Dom'd be dead."  
  
"You don't know that Letty."  
  
"Yes I do. He had enough to put at least Dom and you away. He might have had enough for Leon and Jesse and I too. If he hadn't done something to hide the evidence then we'd all be in jail, or at least you and Dom would be. And Dom wouldn't go back Vince. I saw the look in his eyes when he said he'd die before he went back. He was dead serious. He'd kill himself of make the cops take him out to take him in."  
  
Vince sighed and shook his head. He didn't want to hear it because it was the truth, and if it was the truth then Brian wasn't a total asshole and Vince didn't want to have to admit that for anything.  
  
"Do you two wanna be alone?" Fiona asked, actually managing to sound like she had sympathy for me, for what Vince and I were fighting over.  
  
"No. Because Vince didn't come here to fight with me over something long in the past did you Vince?"  
  
"No. But you asked about Mia. And the fact is Mia is heartbroken over what that a...O'Connor, did to her."  
  
"Ok, so the answer is Mia is not happy and is finding it hard to deal with it without me there to be her shoulder."  
  
"Yes. That's what I meant." Vince growled. "I didn't know you'd come to love O'Connor so much since you left."  
  
"Yeah, well neither did I. Can we eat now? You're the walking gut, how are you waiting so long to eat with food right in front of you?"  
  
"I don't know." Vince said, gave me a small smile and started to stuff his face.  
  
"He eats just like Rome." Fiona said to me a few minutes later.  
  
"Yeah, he does." I admitted with a laugh.  
  
"Who's Rome?" Vince asked with his mouth full.  
  
"He's the guy from the beach, remember?"  
  
"Yeah, him. Mr. touchy feely." Vince said and swallowed, then stuffed his mouth again.  
  
"Rome's a co worker and a good friend. And he might just eat more then you do."  
  
"I don't know about that!" Fiona added, still watching Vince stuff his face in awe.  
  
There was a knock at the door and I got up to answer since I was done eating anyway. I opened the door to Rome.  
  
"Hi." I greeted him. I remembered my manners at that point and stood back to invite Rome in but I really didn't want to. "Come in."  
  
"Thanks," Rome walked in and saw Vince, "but can we talk alone for a few?"  
  
"Sure." I told him and followed him outside onto the little back deck section of the boat. "What's up?"  
  
"You ok?" Rome asked.  
  
"Yeah, fine. Why?"  
  
"I was worried about you. That guy seemed...I don't know, sorta like he had a short fuse."  
  
"He does, but never with me. Thanks for being worried though. I had to talk to you anyway. I have to keep Vince out of the garage. I don't know how we're gonna do it but if you see him coming to the garage would you yell at me so I can head him off?"  
  
"Sure, why don't you want him in the garage though?"  
  
"Too much chance of him finding something that will tell him who B is. He can't find that out Rome. I mean, he just can't. I'm gonna try and send him home in a day or two anyway, but you really have to understand how bad it will be if Vince finds out who Brian is. I mean, it will get really ugly really quick."  
  
"Ok, we'll try to keep it from him." Rome looked at my face, really deeply, and I could tell he didn't like what he saw. "What else is bothering you Reina?"  
  
"Nothing. It's nothing."  
  
"It's not nothing, what is it?"  
  
"Well, it's Fiona. Among other things."  
  
"What about her? Is she being mean to you?"  
  
"No, she's got something worse for her revenge on me planned then that."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"She's been flirting with Vince all night. She can't really like Vince. She must hate him for what he did, for what he made Brian do. But she's been smiling and letting him talk about stuff she can't give a fuck about."  
  
"Maybe she's just helping you hide who Brian is from him."  
  
"Maybe, but I don't get that feeling. The sooner he goes home the better. Now what did you want to talk to me about?"  
  
"I wanted to know if you wanted to go see a movie tomorrow night."  
  
"I'd love to but I think I better hold off on that till I get rid of Vince and get the car closer to done."  
  
"Ok, but what about lunch tomorrow?"  
  
"Ok, that's doable I think." I smiled. I like Rome. I don't know just how or why yet, and I'm trying not to care. I just like him and that's as close as I'm looking at it.  
  
"I'll pull you away from that car at 12 then?"  
  
"Sounds good. See you then."  
  
Rome walked away and I went back into the house, were Vince was washing dishes. What the fuck is up with that? Vince is washing dishes?  
  
"What the fuck happened Coyote? Did someone hold a gun to your head?"  
  
"What are you talking about Letty?"  
  
"You're washing dishes."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So you never wash dishes. You run to the TV to watch movies and eat more food. You never clean up."  
  
"Yeah, well, Fiona cooked, the least I could do is not make her clean."  
  
"Now, see if you'd taken that attitude at home long before now you might have had a chance with poor Mia. And I'd like to point out you picked that up from Brian."  
  
Vince just gave me a dirty look.  
  
"Where is Fiona anyway?"  
  
"She's in the bathroom I guess." Vince answered after looking around.  
  
"Say, V, wanna go to a movie tonight?"  
  
"I guess so. Should we ask Fiona too?"  
  
Should we ask her? Yes. Do I want to? Hell no.  
  
"Sure. We can ask her." There I go, playing nice again. She picked then to come out of the bathroom.  
  
"Hey, we're going to a movie, wanna come?" Vince asked. He likes her. I can tell. This is getting more and more complicated all the time.  
  
"No, I don't think so. I think I'll go up to the house and visit instead."  
  
"Ok then." I answered, trying to hide my pleasure at her answer.  
  
We went to see our movie. I imagine Fiona went to Tej's to bitch to Suki about me and the things Vince said. She wasn't in the boat when we got back.  
  
Vince was sitting on the couch watching TV when I got out of the bathroom.  
  
"I can't believe you expect me to sleep on this." Vince looked up at me and pouted again. He does that pouty face surprisingly well for such a tough lookin guy.  
  
"I don't. I told you you could sleep on the floor or in a hotel."  
  
"You sure can be mean, you know that?"  
  
"Yep. I'm evil."  
  
"Ok, well, I'm going to bed then, see you in the morning." Vince told me and with a sigh he got up to go to the bathroom to change for bed. He's such a baby. He is too tall to enjoy sleeping on the couch though.  
  
I went ot my room and got ready for bed in my ususal sleeping outfit, shorts and a tank top. I heard Vince come out of the bathroom and I literally heard his feet drag the whole way down the little hall. I stuck my head out my door.  
  
"V?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You wanna sleep in here with me? I got a double bed and I guess I could share." I told him like I'd really rather not.  
  
"I thought you'd never ask!" Vince called back and headed down the hall with his pillow and blanket.  
  
"I wasn't going to but I guess I like ya Coyote. Don't tell anyone."  
  
"Deal." Vince chuckled.  
  
After all, it wasn't the first time we'd shared a bed. Sometimes when Dom would really piss me off and scare me I'd run to Vince instead of Mia because if Dom came after me and I was with Mia Dom would be able to take me out of the room, but if I ran to Vince, Dom wouldn't mess with him.  
  
I crawled into the back by the wall and let Vince have the outside. We both fell asleep almost right away. I don't know when Fiona got back or if she found it strange that Vince wasn't on the couch.  
  
When I woke up the next day Vince was still asleep. I crawled over him carefully to make sure he stayed that way and got dressed in the bathroom. Then I headed up to the garage, after leaving Vince a note telling him under no circumstances was he to follow me there, or I'd kill him.  
  
Fiona was up at the garage. That was a first. I looked around and realized she had Jimmy finally putting the new piece in her exhaust. It had taken a long time to get that piece of pipe in. She was talking to Rome when I walked in. I just headed to the Acura and got to work. I was putting the block back together and then all I had to do was put the heads back on and it was ready to go back into the car.  
  
That was, when the car came back. I mean, at this rate I'll never be done but it's not my fault. I mean, I can't control the fact that the body shop is taking longer then they thought they would.  
  
After I had the first piston back in the block complete with new rings Rome came up to me.  
  
"I thought you and Vince were just friends?"  
  
Rome seemed pretty mad.  
  
"We are. What do you mean?"  
  
"Friends don't sleep together in my world." Rome was really pissed.  
  
"I see you've been talking to Fiona." I didn't know which one to be angrier at. Him for buying it or her for spreading it.  
  
"Yeah. So, is it true?"  
  
"What? Did Vince sleep in the same bed as me last night? Yeah. Because he's pretty tall and the couch is pretty small. He's been like a brother to me since I was 11 or so, nothing happened." I told Rome, clearly pissed, or at least I hope the fact I was pissed came off clearly.  
  
"I see." He didn't seem to be buying it. Well, screw him.  
  
"Yeah, I hope you see. I guess if you don't wanna take my word for it you can fuck off and believe what you want." I'd never done anything to deserve for him not to trust me. I looked up at him to wait for his reaction to that. I didn't want to fight with yet another guy I liked, but maybe that was my point in life. 


	29. Home to Rest

Chapter 29 – Home to Rest  
  
"Well, it's not everyday that friends sleep together."  
  
"No it's not." I answered in a matter of fact tone of voice. I was not defending myself to Rome when I'd done nothing.  
  
"So you admit it?!" Rome asked in an incredulous tone.  
  
"Admit what?" I asked in a very bored tone. I was more then a little hurt that not only did he think I'd sleep with my best friend from childhood just because Vince showed up, but that I'd sleep with that same best friend after I'd sort of had a thing going with Rome. I wasn't going to let him know that though. It was just like with Dom, I was right back into the same situation.  
  
Only now I was the one being accused of things, but I was still pretending the whole situation didn't hurt me. I couldn't let on because if I did I wouldn't be tough, I'd be weak and that could not happen.  
  
"That you slept with him." Rome hissed back  
  
"You knew that when you came up here didn't you? I mean, Fiona told you so of course it must be true right? Would you listen if I told you I didn't, or would you believe her anyway?"  
  
"If you didn't then tell me you didn't." Rome said, still angry.  
  
"I'd like to tell you that, but I can't because he did sleep in my bed, just like she told you, and I know I could tell you nothing else happened till I was blue in the face but you'd still believe her, believe I fucked Vince last night. But you know what? Believe whatever you want."  
  
With that I walked up to the stereo I had playing in my bay where I was working and I turned it up. I was more or less trying to send the message that his presence was no longer wanted or needed so he should just shove off.  
  
It was blasting out one of my favourite songs; it was my own mixed CD, not the stupid radio that always played pathetic pop music. The song was Not Falling by Mudvayne. As I turned it up it was playing the chorus.  
  
_'I, I stand, (for nothing) not crawling,  
(but myself), not falling down  
I, I bleed, (for no one), the demons,  
(but myself) that drag me down  
I, I stand, (for nothing) not crawling,  
(the center), not falling down  
(of calms within the eye)  
I, I'll bleed, (for no one), the demons,  
(but myself) that drag me down  
(for me and no one else)'  
_  
I'll bleed for no one but myself for me and no one else. I'm done bleeding for other people, done selling myself short for other people, done taking crap for other people to keep the peace. Everyone says I'm the tough girl, I'm the one with the attitude, the one that doesn't take shit, who gives it. Why am I the first one to try and keep the peace, even if it means selling myself down the river over it?  
  
Rome walked up to me closer, obviously ready to try and talk to me over the music. I started to sing along hoping that he might yet take the hint.  
  
"I'm over, personalities, conflicting. I don't need you, or anyone, by me. I'll just be, living my own life."  
  
The song ended and he was still standing there. I looked at him again, but didn't say anything. I tried to put 'what, are you still here?' in my look. I guess he picked up on it. He looked like he was going to say something else but then he started to walk away.  
  
Letty the bad ass took over, I couldn't help it. I called after him sarcastically, "Does this mean lunch is off?"  
  
He turned around to look at me and with an enigmatic look he just continued to walk away.  
  
You know what? Fuck him. Who needs him? I don't love him anyway. I love Dom. I hope to god that Dom is doing his thinking because now that I know what it's like to be judged and convinced for something you never did all without the chance to defend yourself, and even when you force someone to listen to your side, knowing they didn't really listen because they'd already decided you were guilty anyway I was going to be more receptive to listening to Dom.  
  
I just hope in our time apart he's learned to listen to me too, and include me in more, not just let stuff slide and take it for granted I didn't care or didn't want to know. That and that my opinion matters and I do know better then him about some stuff.  
  
It really, really hurts that Rome believed what he did all without ever talking to me. I know he doesn't know me that well, but even still, it hardly seems right. He has no reason to believe that of me. It's not like we have a history of having that happen between us. It doesn't matter anyway because I'm not in Miami to make friends. I'm here to let Dom get his life together and maybe find a piece of myself I lost too. If I happen to go home a more confident mechanic then that's just a pleasant byproduct.  
  
Tej came up to my bay then and turned down the stereo. I looked up in annoyance. I like to have loud music playing while I work. Helps me concentrate.  
  
"Got some good news today." Tej started.  
  
"Yeah?" I blew some hair off my forehead.  
  
"Yeah. Car's done, it's coming back today." Tej was smiling.  
  
"That's good."  
  
"Only 4 days left of your two weeks. You gonna be done on time."  
  
"Yep." I answered and went back to reinserting pistons after putting the new rings on them.  
  
"You sound sure of that." Tej looked at me. I raised one eyebrow in my typical quizzical fashion.  
  
"You know of some reason why I shouldn't be sure?"  
  
"No. Not at all. Just thought I'd let you know." Tej said and started to walk away.  
  
"Cocky muthafucka." I said very low under my breath and turned my music back up. The song changed over to Jay-Z, Nigga please. I'd forgotten this song was on the CD. I'd loved to do sexy little dances to this song for Dom. It just has one of those stripper beats to it. I sort of started to just move in place still working. I looked up and caught Suki sending me more of her patented dirty looks. Likely just cause I had the moves that drove all the guys crazy and she couldn't get a girlfriend to save her soul.  
  
I was sort of ashamed for laughing out loud at my own mental joke. Ok, fuck it, I should have been sort of ashamed of myself but I totally wasn't. I came up with some funny shit and I was only upset no one else but my own warped brain had heard it.  
  
About 5 songs later I had the last piston back in the engine and I was finally ready to bolt the heads back on. I'd ground and seated all the valves, ordered brand spanking new titanium valve springs, cleaned every last bit of dirt off the heads, had them sent out to be planed just to be sure they were flat and ordered the best head and valve cover gaskets money could buy. Not only that but I had the valve covers polished to an almost chrome like shine.  
  
I'd painted the block dark blue, because I had a few ideas for the colour of the car and I'd decided that blue was going to play into it heavily. Plus chrome looks awesome on dark blue or black.  
  
When I started to bolt the heads back on I'd pretty much forgotten about Rome and our fight. I remembered the whole issue when I realized Fiona was gone and that might mean she was alone with Vince in the boat telling him all sorts of horrible things. Or telling him all sorts of the truth. I didn't know which would be worse at that point in the day.  
  
I guess I really should go check it out, I told myself and wiped off my hands on a nearby rag. That done I headed down to the boat. I found Vince all alone watching the TV.  
  
"How's it goin V?"  
  
"Bored." He answered.  
  
"Well, what did you think would happen when you came here? You knew I was working when you headed out to come here."  
  
"I didn't know you'd still work when I was here, I thought you'd leave and come home with me."  
  
"Oh Vince." I sighed and sat down beside. "I'm not ready to go home. I'm in the middle of something important here. I can't leave at least till it's done."  
  
Brian had told the rest of his team not to tell anyone anything about him right? So Vince technically could safely come up to the garage with me and no one would say anything to him right? I could just introduce him to them as Vince my friend and let him assist me for the afternoon right? What harm could it do?  
  
Lots, but I really didn't want to think of him sitting around here bored. Who knew what trouble he'd get into and that wouldn't be good either. Plus if he was in my sight then Fiona couldn't tell him anything, or say anything, or plant anything in his fertile brain like she had Rome. And if Vince was with me I was willing to bet Rome would stay the fuck away and I wasn't ready to deal with Rome again yet.  
  
The wounds he'd inflicted on my heart were still too fresh and I had no Mia to run to, to make them better. She'd told me it was ok for me to like Rome, but what she'd never told me was how to deal with it if he treated me bad or hurt me. If she was here I know she'd make it all better, or try her best to put it in perspective at least but all I had was Vince. He wasn't the best person to go to with issues like this, but he'd keep me entertained at least.  
  
Hell, if I told him what Rome had said, how he'd treated me, Vince would just find Rome and beat the shit out of him. And ok, it might look like they're fairly well matched, but they ain't. Vince is the toughest man I know. He looks like a thug because he is. He's just a thug who loves his family and friends. Don't let that make you think he's soft. He's not. Not even close. He'd beat the shit out of Rome and not even blink.  
  
You know how when some people go to prison they become someone's bitch for protection from the rest of the slime in jail? Well, Vince was never anyone's bitch because he didn't need any protection and he even had people offer to be his bitch for his protection. Dom took care of himself in jail but he never had anyone offer themselves to him just for his protection, not like Vince.  
  
Vince didn't take anyone up on their offers, he just kept to himself. I know because he told me. I think I'm the only one he told that story to. We tell each other things we can't tell anyone else. Just like the time I cried in front of him and it was ok. He's the only one. I know he'll never tell, just like I never will.  
  
Ok, I know I just told in a fashion but it's not like anyone will ever read this thing.  
  
"You wanna go get something to eat then you can come assist me with my project this afternoon?" I asked reluctantly. He perked up at the mention of lunch and then got really happy at the mention of going to the garage.  
  
"Hell yeah, anything's better then sitting around here all afternoon."  
  
"Ok, let's go then." I picked my keys up and we walked up to my car.  
  
"Can I drive?" Vince asked hopefully.  
  
"Nope." I answered, quashing his hopes.  
  
"Please?" That's pretty much as close as he'll ever come to begging. He's the only person other then Dom and of course me that has ever driven this car. And that's not totally true but Dom's dad doesn't count because I would have given Van anything in my power to give him. He was like my saviour for a lot of years, like the father I should have had, so of course I let him drive the car once.  
  
He just smiled at me and said in Italian "È selvaggio, come vento, giusto come voi amore." Dom told me after that meant 'It's wild, like the wind, just like you my love.' I wish I'd learned Italian, it's a beautiful language. Still could learn I guess. Dom could teach me. I always imagined he'd be teaching our children some day, even though I never saw myself with kids, I always figured I'd have some with Dom someday.  
  
"Alright, but just this once and don't tell anyone." I caved and handed over the keys.  
  
"Thanks baby girl, I'll be good."  
  
"No you won't." I laughed, no way would he be good, but he'd be careful and that was good enough for me.  
  
"Ok, you caught me." He grinned and climbed in the car, whacking his knees on the steering wheel then sliding the seat back with a curse. I laughed at him trying to fit into the seat the way it was set for my much smaller frame.  
  
When I was in he started the car and it roared to life. We peeled out and Vince turned on the stereo. The first song cued up, much to my embarrassment was 'Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through' by Meatloaf. Yeah, I know, I know, pathetic to listen to Meatloaf after like '92. But this song is one that Vince use to play for me. He use to give me music when I was feeling down or bad.  
  
He let the song play, surprising me because I thought he'd skip it in favour of something else.  
  
"'Member when I use to play that song for you?" Vince asked me with a fond smile.  
  
"Yeah. You said see, you're never alone if you can put on the 'phones and let the drummer tell your heart what to do."  
  
"Well, it's cheesy but it's true."  
  
"Sure is." I didn't want to talk about it anymore. "So, what are you in the mood for?"  
  
"Food." Vince answered. Helpful V, real helpful.  
  
"Ok, any preference or should I just pick?"  
  
"You pick. You know I'd eat just about anything."  
  
I named a little restaurant I'd been eating at a bit. It looked like a dive outside but it was run by a familia, just like Toretto's and the food was just as good. I gave Vince directions and we got there in one piece and ate mostly in silence. But it was that good kind of silence, the kind you can only have with someone you know really well, and you're so comfortable with you don't have to fill up every moment of time with them with talking, you can just be quiet together.  
  
Then we drove back, parked the car and headed up to the garage. No one but Suki was around. I introduced Vince to her and it went pretty uneventfully. But of course, Suki wouldn't be too interesting in Vince. He doesn't have the 'right tools'.  
  
He helped me with the engine and when the car arrived he ohhed and ahhed over it with me. It was a totally different looking car. Of course it was all in one piece. Even if it didn't have any wheels or suspension or most of its brakes. We started to drop the engine back into it right then, I was so excited to have the car back, and well, looking like a car. They set it on jackstands right off the wrecker truck for me so that I wouldn't have trouble getting the new, upgraded Koni shocks and HKS springs under it.  
  
"What a car!" Vince exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah. I can't wait to have it done. You ready to head home V?"  
  
"Sure. Let's go. So, what's for supper?" Vince asked, arm around my shoulders as we walked to the boat. If he didn't think with his stomach he wouldn't be Vince.  
  
"I don't know. We should go out to eat then go out to some club. What'dya say? Be like old times."  
  
"Ok. Let's do it!" Vince whooped almost like a kid. "I haven't had time to go out in forever."  
  
"Ok. Well, let's get ready and we'll go out and find some trouble to get into." I grinned and Vince grinned back  
  
I caught Rome watching us within hearing distance with a dirty look on his face. I tried to convince myself his continuing believe I was having some hot affair with Vince didn't bother me but I knew it did bother me. But like I already said fuck Rome. I don't need his shit right now. I'm gonna have a good time with my boy and if Rome thinks I'm fucking him because of that Rome can go fuck himself.  
  
On that note I pushed into the boat to get ready, dragging V in with me.


	30. Sit Down

Chapter 30 – Sit Down.  
  
I ran into my room and slammed the door closed to get ready. I was taking Vince out to another place I found all on my own. It was far from as classy as the place Rome had taken me to go dancing in. That place had been fun, and I'd had a good time, but it wasn't really my style.  
  
It was too classy, too chintzy, too...well...nice for it to be the kind of club I liked to go out to. I liked clubs where there was sawdust on the floor to make the blood and spilt liquor easier to clean up at the end of the night and the only drinks you could buy were shots of hard liquor and Corona.  
  
I liked clubs that I could go into dressed in my own cargos and a wife- beater and fit right in because in that outfit I looked as tough as the rest of the patrons. It was either that kind of a bar or a place where all the racers and their skanks went to for me. I only liked the latter because it gave me a chance to show off the fact that I was on Dom's arm, not all the skanks who wished they were.  
  
But since I had no Dom tonight, just rough and tumble Vince I knew just the place to go. I knew he'd get a kick out of the place. I pulled on a clean tank top and picked out a pair of leather combat pants.  
  
"What am I supposed to wear Letty?" Vince called through the door of my room.  
  
"Whatever Vince. What you had on would be fine." I yelled back  
  
"So covered in grease goes over well where we're going does it?" Vince called back at me exasperatedly. I just considered it revenge for all the times he said 'food' when I asked him what he wanted to eat.  
  
"No, but you could wear what you had on, if it was clean." I said as I walked out of my room. I walked out of my room to find Vince wearing nothing but his boxer shorts in the living room. "Damn Vince, you wanna give the whole place a free show or something?"  
  
"Well, I got no room to change in, where did you want me to do it?"  
  
"The bathroom might be a good choice V. Shit you're slow by times. Anyone could come by and see you naked in the living room."  
  
"I ain't naked. I got shorts on."  
  
"Not exactly shorts Vince. They your underoos."  
  
"I ain't had underoos since I was 10 Letty. These are Joe Boxers I'll have you know."  
  
"You's lyin I know you's lyin. I saw those superman underwear in your drawer back home one day when I went lookin for your cash." I told him, giggling.  
  
"You bitch!" Vince made a lunge for me, I don't know what he was planning to do to me if he caught me but he was very focused on not letting me go. I was a bit worried at the crazed look in his eyes.  
  
I ran out of the boat and onto the dock, Vince on my heels. Wait a second. This means that Vince is out in public in his underwear. I spun on my heel and just started to laugh. I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face and I was gasping for breath. Vince pulled up short and looked at me like I had two heads, for all of two seconds. That was about when it occurred to him that he was almost naked in public.  
  
The look on his face was priceless. He went to cover his package with his hands, caught himself then put his hands on his hips to hide it. He tried to brazen his way out of the embarrassment he was in at being dressed in almost nothing in public. He slowly scratched his chest, like running around outside in his boxers was something he did every day.  
  
"You went in my room and went through my underwear drawer huh?" Vince asked, a half decent imitation of the Dom 'so angry I'm calm' face in place.  
  
"Yeah. I needed money."  
  
"When was this?"  
  
"I don't remember exactly. I guess it was sometime when Dom was in jail."  
  
"I see. And who did you tell about what you found?"  
  
"No one. I didn't want anyone else to know our tough protector still had superman underoos." I snickered.  
  
"Yeah, well, my...I wanted....I had to...Shut up!" Vince yelled, not able to find a way to explain to me why he still had a pair of underwear from when he was 10.  
  
I noticed then that a bit of a crowd had gathered.  
  
"We should go back inside and finish getting ready V." I said and started past him into the house. He followed me in and as soon as the door was closed he grabbed me and started tickling me like crazy.  
  
I hollered for him to stop for about 10 minutes and then he finally did.  
  
"Now we're even and I can go get ready." Vince said, laughing as he got up off the floor where he'd had me pinned.  
  
"That was a really mean thing to do to me Vince."  
  
"Well, so was going through my underwear drawer." Vince answered and picked out a new pair of jeans from his bag. He pulled them on and then grabbed a clean wife beater and pulled it on over his head. Just then Fiona walked into the room.  
  
"Everything ok? I heard screaming." Fiona looked at us speculatively.  
  
"Yeah, everything's chill." I told her. "I just gave Vince some bad news and he felt the need to tickle me to punish me."  
  
"Ok, good. Tej was sort of worried about who was getting murdered." Fiona actually cracked a smile. Then she looked at me like she was sizing me up. "So, what did you say to Rome that has him so mad? It's not like Ro to get that mad. Not since B-B and him fought back home just after high school." Fiona caught her mistake before she let her brother's name slip, thank god.  
  
"What did I say to him to make him mad?" I asked, getting pissed that this was being put off on me.  
  
"Yeah, he was muttering about Letty this and Letty that all afternoon."  
  
"Yeah well, Letty just told him where he could shove his bull headed accusations and assumptions." I told Fiona and huffed as I put my hands on my hips and tried not to let the genuine upset show. It shouldn't hurt that I'd been tried and convicted without a trial but it did.  
  
"What did he accuse you of?" Fiona asked, looking like she didn't believe her precious 'Ro' could have accused me of doing anything that upsetting if I didn't really do what ever it was.  
  
"Nothing major." I answered her and unwittingly glanced at Vince. Aw shit, now he was gonna know I was pissed at Rome.  
  
"What did that buster say to you?" Vince asked in that same 'I'm so angry I'm calm' voice he'd tried on me earlier.  
  
"Nothin V. Let it go." I answered, and did my best to shake off the bad mood and anger that the knowledge I'd been given had put me in.  
  
"What did that punk say to you!" Vince tried again. "If he said one thing to make you upset I'm gonna go kick his muthafucken ass!" Vince shouted.  
  
"No way Vince. I said let it go. I still wanna go out, let's go. Just let it go V. For me?"  
  
"Ok, only because I wanna go out in this city. I heard it was wild."  
  
"It is, let's go." I took his hand and started to drag him out the door and off the boat. "Let's go! There is a bar you are gonna love somewhere in this city and they have a Corona and Lime with my name on it!" I laughed.  
  
As soon as I started off toward a night of no cares and lots of liquor the whole day started to look up. What Rome had said and what he'd thought didn't matter quite as much and by the time we made the street and flagged down a cab it didn't matter at all. I was gonna get loaded and with Vince by my side I was like as not to get into trouble. I was looking forward to it.  
  
"You look happy all of a sudden." Vince said, his arm along the top of the seat behind my shoulders in the cab.  
  
"You're gonna like this place." I said with a sneaky grin up at Vince.  
  
"Oh yeah?" Vince asked, and I could see the wheels of his head spinning as he tried to figure out why it was he would like this place so much.  
  
"Yeah, it's definitely your kind of bar."  
  
Vince pulled my hair and looked out the window a little absently. "We'll see." Was all he had to say to come back to me about my confidence he'd have a good time. He looked preoccupied. Of course, he likely was, planning Rome's death for pissing me off. Ever my champion, that was Vince. You know, if I could mix him and Dom together, sort of pick and chose which parts of each one I wanted in a man I could come up with one hell of a boyfriend. Too bad I don't like Vince like that. Kinda gross to even think of it really.  
  
We pulled up in front of the place and got out of the cab. Vince paid the guy and then we walked up to the place. I stopped Vince outside the door.  
  
"Ok, we need a few ground rules."  
  
"We do?" Vince asked, narrowing his eyes at me.  
  
"Yeah. Rule one, there are no rules. That means no telling me who I can and can't talk to, no telling me how much I can and can't drink. No telling me what I can and can't do. You can expect the same from me."  
  
"Agreed. Can we go in now?"  
  
I didn't like the look in his eyes. He was agreeing, but he didn't mean it. He was going to feel free to butt in if he thought he should, but I wanted to get the evening started anyway. "Yeah, sure." I pushed open the door and we walked in. The place was dimly lit with none of the flashing coloured lights that were so common in the usual dance club. It was smoky and most people had beers in their hands.  
  
Vince and I headed right to the bar and both asked for a Corona. There were more then a few cowboy hat wearin guys around which, when you thought about it was strange considering we were in Miami, but maybe I liked it so much because it could have been any honky tonk bar back home. We had lots of them but Miami didn't really have that Mexican, desert, cowboy heritage like we did back in California. We had a lot of every background in California but we were close to a lot of deserts and stuff back home. I could tell Vince was fitting right in. Most of the rest of the crowd was wearing leather and denim. It was a cross between a honky tonk and a biker bar. Just the kind of place you could expect either Vince or I to have a great time.  
  
"You mean you came here alone?" Vince asked, looking around at all the rough lookin guys and their equally rough looking women.  
  
"Yep." I answered, leaning on the bar and taking in the scene. I don't know why he was so surprised. We'd both done our motorcycle riding phase, Vince had been into Harleys and I'd been into Jap bikes but even still, we'd both lived the life. Him longer then me.  
  
"Little Letty is all grown up." Vince snickered down at me. "If you can take care of yourself in a bar like this you can take care of yourself anywhere."  
  
"Glad someone finally realized it."  
  
Vince just gave me one of those unreadable looks of his that I hate so much.  
  
We mostly hung out and drank. A lot. I was pretty drunk before I realized it. But that was ok since I'd come out with the intent of getting totally wasted. I hadn't been drunk in a long time. I'd been out since I'd come to Miami but, except that one time with Rome, I hadn't allowed myself to drink enough to loose my control. I couldn't. Not if I was alone. I was too volatile without someone to look out for me in some way.  
  
Not that I couldn't take care of myself because I could. But if I didn't want to fight then I had to lay off the liquor. But tonight that wasn't a concern because I had Vince as a check. So I pounded them back and hoped it would help me forget the mess my life was in at least for a while.  
  
It was around that time when I realized some creepy guy was looking at me from across the bar. When I noticed him he looked away but when I looked back at him a few minutes later he was staring at me again. I got a real creepy vibe from him. I couldn't explain it but it was weird.  
  
For the rest of the night every time I looked around the creepy guy was watching me. I didn't know what to do about it or why he was doing it so I just kept shooting dirty looks back and drinking. Maybe not smart but every once and a while I danced to some crazy dance with Vince to try and make crazy guy know I was with somebody.  
  
Near the end of the night some random girl walked up to me and blocked my way. I looked her up and down more in curiosity then in any real worry about who she was or what she wanted. Even in the rough crowd I wasn't worried about my ability to handle myself and if I got in over my head I knew Vince could bail me out.  
  
"You want something?" I asked the girl with a sneer.  
  
"I want you to stop flirting with my man." The girl snarled.  
  
"Flirting with your man? I'm not flirting with anyone." I really wasn't. The last thing I needed was more men in my life. Look how well the few I already had were going for me. Like I needed to add any more to that mess.  
  
"Yes you are, you keep staring at him and stuff." This girl accused me of staring at her man? I didn't stare at anyone.  
  
Except creepy guy.  
  
"You mean that weirdo over there who never stopped staring at me all night?"  
  
"He's not weird and you're staring at him."  
  
"Bitch you need to check that attitude and check your man. I was just here with my friend minding my own business when I caught him staring at me. And he stared at me all fucken night long. If he's such a dog you can't trust him not to sniff around then you need to leash him or dismiss him. Him not being able to keep it in his pants isn't my problem. I didn't encourage him."  
  
"You're lying bitch, he wouldn't stare at you. He's got better already."  
  
Ok, that's it. Not only does she think I'd want her loser of a man, she thinks that she's so much better then me that he wouldn't stray on her.  
  
Ok, maybe that hurt because I obviously wasn't all that. After all my man cheated on me more times then I likely know about. I know that it doesn't matter how good they got it at home, some men will just cheat. But this girl, who wasn't half as good looking as I am, and I'm not being vain at all thinking that her creepy man wouldn't leave her for me and not only that but she thought the creepy guy was too good for me just set me off.  
  
So I did the only thing I could do under the circumstances. I hit her.  
  
Ok, normally I wouldn't care what she thought of me and I'd just walk away. But all the shit with Rome and all the shit I was still thinking about with Dom just meant that I wasn't putting up with her shit. I almost think I came out tonight looking for a fight to work off my frustrations with everything anyway. Ok, I know I came out tonight looking to fight. That's why I picked this bar. They're use to it and I knew there'd be lots of people who'd obliged me here.  
  
And she did oblige me. She punched back and got me to. I was surprised to say the least. I'd expected this to be easy. She was making me work way harder then my last few fights, and that included miss thang Suki from Tej's place.  
  
She made a half decent fist but this next one I had coming her way was gonna show her a thing or two. I hit her with a right jab to the nose. Blood started shooting everywhere. Guess she's sort of like me, she didn't start to cry or find a way out of the fight. She got angry.  
  
Good for her.  
  
She tried to punch me back in my nose. I dodged her and she grazed the side of my head instead. I countered with a nicely landed (if I do say so myself) upper-cut to the stomach. She grunted and tried not to go down. She did manage to recover and she came at me again. I think I might have been a bit over confident because she got me in the eye with a left hook. I think she must be right handed and I think I'm lucky. Her left was weak, and that is the only reason why I can still see out of my right eye.  
  
That's gonna bruise.  
  
I wondered where Vince was as I threw another right jab into the girl's chin. It knocked her head back and when she righted herself she looked a little dazed. Never one to miss out on an opportunity I decked her in the mouth quickly before she could recover and then I hit her again.  
  
And again.  
  
And again.  
  
And before I knew it she was on the ground with me on top of her and I was just wailing on her. Her face was pretty messed up. She'd managed to hit me once again so I had added a split lip to my black eye.  
  
She however, had a split lip, cut cheek, two black eyes, I think I knocked a tooth out of her mouth, and I know I broke her nose. She shoulda known better then to mess with someone who looks like me.  
  
I think it was about then that someone realized how bad off she was and got her man. Vince must have come over to see what was going on that had the whole crowd gathered around. And it was likely good he did show up because as drunk as I was, by the time he got to my side I was busy trying to take the face off creepy guy too and I think he was on the verge of fighting back.  
  
While me'n creepy guy were starting to go at each other his girl got back up. I noticed her doing so, but again, I was drunk and it didn't really register that she'd come after me again once she got back up. I guess I just figured that she'd see I was busy with her man and be content with the beating I already laid on her and go fuck off somewhere.  
  
No such luck, because when Vince was hauling me off creepy guy so that I didn't really get my ass kicked she got up and sucker punched me while Vince was holding me back away from her man. That made me so mad I got loose from Vince some how and got one more punch into the girls already broken nose.  
  
She screamed in pain and fury. I screamed in frustration and blood lust.  
  
Vince got a hold of me again and started dragging me kicking and screaming out of the bar, holding me off the ground and carrying me out of the bar. He's lucky he's so strong.  
  
"Letty, those guys were getting ready to kick your ass!"  
  
"I can take 'em, let me back in there. Let me at her!" I yelled at Vince, still infuriated.  
  
"Come on you little spitting wildcat, you'll get your ass kicked." Vince roared back and threw me into a cab.  
  
"I don't wanna go home. I wanna fight that creepy guy."  
  
"Tough shit. I'm not scrapin you off the floor tonight Lett. I've done it one too many times and tonight I'm not in the mood. You're gonna be pissed when you see your face." Vince started to laugh.  
  
"Why?" I asked him, the alcohol dulling the pain to the point where I didn't know just how bad I'd been messed up.  
  
"The little puta got you good a few times."  
  
"Not as good as I got her." I said, starting to slur my words from both exhaustion and from being so very drunk.  
  
"Nope, not as good as you got her." Vince agreed with a masculine chuckle. I don't remember anything else between then and home because I guess I passed out. I do vaguely remember Vince picking me up and carrying me to bed, pulling off my boots and then washing my face. I only remember the face part because he used alchol on the cuts and it hurt like hell.  
  
Then he crawled into the bed with me and I don't remember anything after that point till I woke up the next day with a splitting headache and a very sore face. Vince was no where to be found in the room so I got up and dragged myself into the bathroom.  
  
I looked like hell. My eye was all black and blue, there was a crusty cut on my lower lip where the bitch had split it open and I had a little scraped patch on my cheek.  
  
After I showered and brushed my teeth I felt much better but still like shit. I left my hair loose around my shoulders to detract from the eye. I didn't really own makeup so I couldn't try to hide it that way. I dragged back into my room and changed into clean, very comfortable clothes. I picked my keys up off my dresser and left my room. I knew what I needed.  
  
Greasy food. I needed a big old bag of McDonald's fries, a large Coke and a Quarter Pounder. I don't know what it is about grease but there is nothing better for a hang over then greasy food and lots of liquids.  
  
I was walking out of the door when Vince called out to me.  
  
"You ok baby girl?"  
  
"Ugh." I answered. It was all I could get out.  
  
He laughed, dirty bastard that he is.  
  
"You still feel good you fucked her up worse then she fucked you up?"  
  
"Hell yeah." I croaked.  
  
"Where you goin?" He asked. I finally met his gaze. "Ah Lett." He got up off the couch. "You ok?" He took my chin and tipped my face back gently. He was doing a credible Mia impression.  
  
"Yeah. I'll live."  
  
"Glad I put ice on that eye last night. Could be a real swollen mess."  
  
"Thanks Vince."  
  
"Eh, it was just time for you to blow Letty. I could tell it was comin before we left the house. You always get this look in your eye when you're gonna blow up. I'm just glad that guy kept his cool long enough for me to get you out of the bar."  
  
"Me too. But the pretty bitch had it comin." I chuckled, couldn't help it.  
  
"Why did you two fight, by the way?"  
  
"She accused me of trying to pick up her creepy boyfriend."  
  
"Did you?"  
  
"Vince!"  
  
"What?" Vince looked like Mr. Innocent.  
  
"Of course I didn't try to pick up her creepy ass boyfriend. He was a weirdo who kept staring at me all night."  
  
"Why'd you fight her then?"  
  
"Because when I told her that her boy kept staring at me she said that it wasn't like he'd ever leave her for me and I took exception to how she said it." I was still croaking out my words like a smoker with a two pack a day habit.  
  
"Same old Letty, taking exception to how everyone says everything." But Vince laughed when he said it.  
  
"Yeah, that's me."  
  
"So you never did tell me where you were going."  
  
"McDonald's. Why are you not hung over? You seemed pretty drunk yourself."  
  
"I just got lucky. Let's go. I'm hungry."  
  
"What else is new?"  
  
Vince didn't answer he just picked me up like he had last night to drag me out of the bar and carried me into the sun. I squinted and groaned with my aching head.  
  
"You gonna let me walk Vince."  
  
"Maybe." He set me down when he said it and we walked, slowly, to my car. "Can you drive?" Vince asked, and it was in genuine concern, not a want to not be driven around by a girl.  
  
"I'd rather not." I admitted and handed him my keys. He was likely one of only two people I could admit that 'weakness' to. Most people I'd have had to go 'of course I can drive fool' but with Vince or Mia I could admit I didn't want to or didn't feel good enough to.  
  
"Good enough." Vince took the keys and started the car. He drove rather sedately to McDonald's, following my directions. We ate then headed back to the house. I went to change into my work clothes. It might be a late start but there's no way I'm missing a whole day of working on the car.  
  
"Later V." I said on my way out the door.  
  
"Where you goin?"  
  
"Garage."  
  
"Can I come?"  
  
"Nope. Not today. I'll be home soon."  
  
"You'll be sorry." Was what I heard as I left the boat. And maybe I would be.  
  
I walked into the garage and Tej was the first one who saw me.  
  
"What the hell happened to you?"  
  
"Bar fight." I mumbled as I started to arrange my work space. Fiona walked up. Was she always hanging around the garage or what?  
  
"My god! That looks bad. Did you ice it?" Fiona asked, sounding concerned. She's concerned about me? What Rome told me about her being a nice girl might be true after all.  
  
"Yeah. I had ice on it last night. I'll be fine. I've been in worse fights. It's all Vince's fault. Ever since we was little kids he's always gotten me into shit."  
  
Fiona looked like she had more to say but she didn't say whatever it was. She just shot me off a speculative look and walked off.  
  
"You sure you should be working today? You can take the day off. We'll even extend the deadline a day. You look like shit."  
  
"Thanks, but I'll be fine."  
  
"Ok." Tej walked off to work on the car he was in the middle of when I'd walked in. If Tej was working on a car that meant it was for someone really important. He mostly had Jimmy and Rome do the mechanical stuff. And Brian, when he was around. Of course with Brian out of town Tej was short handed.  
  
Oh well, I'm sure Vince will go home soon and then Brian can come home.  
  
I put a good few hours into the car then headed back to the boat. Much as I was looking forward to Vince going home I was gonna miss having someone from home around me too. It was just too much of a headache to have him around. I always had to watch my step and worry if he was going to find something that would clue him into who B was.  
  
As soon as I walked into the boat Vince walked up to me and sat me down on a kitchen chair.  
  
"Letty, I gotta go."  
  
"V, what's wrong?" Vince didn't look good.  
  
"Letty." He sighed. "There was an accident back home." 


	31. It Scares Me Too

Chapter 31 – It Scares Me Too  
  
"What do you mean accident?" I asked, standing up.  
  
"I mean there was an accident. I gotta go home."  
  
"What kinda accident?" My stomach dropped to my feet. What if it was Dom? What if he died never knowing that I still loved him, even if he could be an ass?  
  
"Leon crashed the skyline running from the cops." Vince sighed and raked his hair with his hands.  
  
"Is he ok?" Vince just looked at me. "God damn it Vince, is he ok?"  
  
"He's gonna be fine." Vince answered evasively.  
  
"Fine, that's fine, let's go." I made up my mind in that second. One of my team was hurt, one of my family, and I wasn't the type of person that could ignore that. I had to be by his side.  
  
"No Letty, you stay here." Vince told me in that same gentle, calm down, I'm scared you're gonna flip out voice he used on me when Dom smacked me that time.  
  
"Vince, don't you fucken tell me to stay here when Leon's hurt bad enough you can't answer a straight question about how badly hurt he is."  
  
"Letty, he's gonna be fine. You don't need to go home over it when I know you ain't ready. Besides I'm not supposed to know where you are, let alone have spent the last few days here with you."  
  
"So, if I go home it won't matter."  
  
"If you go home you'll never get to leave again. Whether you're with him or not you're his property in his mind and he'll never let you get away again. Take the time you need Letty."  
  
"I can't just sit here and play fun in the sun in Miami while Leon's hurt, then bummed out about Kimi."  
  
"You'n Leon and naming your fucken cars." Vince smiled briefly. "Seriously Lett, he's in the hospital right now but he's gonna be just fine and the Skyline can be rebuilt. You can stay here and I'll call you and tell you all about it then you can talk to him on the phone ok?"  
  
I sat back down heavily. Leon was family and I wanted to go to his side. But Vince was right in a lot of ways. I wasn't ready to go home yet. I just thought I had to. And if I went back I'd never get another chance to leave again. Not to mention I had it pretty good in Miami. I had Brian and a job and there was the small matter of Brian coming home with me when I went. If I left with Vince that would never happen.  
  
"Ok V. I'll stay here for now. But if I find out he's hurt worse then you let on to me I'm gonna kill you when I do get home."  
  
"Fair enough. Besides the car's almost done here. I know you wanna see it to the end."  
  
"I do, but not if it means I'm not around if Leon's really badly hurt Vince."  
  
"It's ok Letty. I swear he's gonna be fine. It'd just look really strange if I told the team I'd rather stay buying stuff for my car then come home after I found out or I'd stay too."  
  
"I understand V. I'll drive you to the airport." I sighed and stood up.  
  
"I can take a taxi." Vince shouldered his bag.  
  
"It's fine. I could use the drive." I snatched up my keys and marched out of the house toward the car. We got in and I started it.  
  
The drive to the airport was mostly silent. Vince was lost in his thoughts of hating to fly and what he was gonna see when he got home and I was lost in guilt of not running to my team's side when one was down.  
  
I parked the car in short term parking at the airport and we got out.  
  
I carried Vince's guitar case into the building as he carried his bag. We walked in and Vince walked up to the counter to check in and check his luggage. Once that was done he headed to the designated waiting area with me on his heels.  
  
We sat down and sat in further silence for a number of minutes. I don't think either one of us knew what to say. Vince broke the silence first.  
  
"I'm sorry I have to run off Lett. I wanted to stay a while longer."  
  
"I wish you weren't leaving because of something like this Vince, but I'll be ok."  
  
"I know you will."  
  
"You better tell me right away if you get home and Leon is in really bad shape, you got it?" I stated, tough Letty fully back in place. "I mean it Vince. No keeping it from me because you think I don't want to know or don't want to come home, you got it?"  
  
"Yeah Letty I got it. I'll tell you if he's really hurt ok?"  
  
"Yeah. They called Vince's flight over the P.A.  
  
"Well, that's me." Vince stood up. I stood up with him. "Take carea yourself kid."  
  
"I will."  
  
"That buster gives you any more hassles you let me know and I'll be back down here to take carea him, ok?"  
  
"I can take carea myself V."  
  
"I know you can Letty, but sometimes you need to lean on somebody, not because you really need their help, but because you need their companionship. Don't forget that."  
  
"I won't." We looked at each other for a moment. They made the final boarding call for his flight.  
  
Like it was a mutual decision we grabbed each other in a tight hug.  
  
"I wish I could tell you to tell them all I miss them." I muttered against his shirt.  
  
"I wish I could tell them you're ok." Vince murmured back.  
  
"Ok, well, you better go." I said, breaking away from the only familiar thing I'd had in my life in weeks.  
  
"Ok, I'll call you as soon as I get home and find anything out ok?"  
  
"I'll be waiting." And with a terse nod Vince was off to get on a plane, which he hated, to go find out just how bad one of his best friends was hurt. And I was left to my own devices wondering the same thing.  
  
I wandered out to my car, got in, paid the attendant and drove off down the road toward the freeway to get home. As soon as I was on the freeway I went into race mode. The only thing I knew of that would take my mind off things and make me feel normal was a fast run.  
  
I dropped a gear and started to pick up speed. Right before I would have hit the car in front of me I swerved out into the outside lane and passed him, rushing up at the car in front of me in my new lane.  
  
Then I swerved back the way I'd gone and rushed up to the next car. I repeated the same pattern over and over and over again, speed, swerve, speed. It was very freeing for me. Then I switched lanes and went to rush up on the next car.  
  
And realized one of the cars I just rushed past in my flight toward the bumper of the one in front of me was a squad car.  
  
Just fucken great!  
  
I darted in and out a few more times and made progress getting away from the wonderful car full of boys in blue who now had their lights on and were trying to run me down. What they didn't know was I was use to running from cops in L.A., where it is much harder to do then it is in Miami. Traffic in Miami is nothing like the traffic in L.A.  
  
I was doing pretty good getting a lead on them. When I went around a bend and got out of their sight I made a few more really quick positioning changes, ended up in the outside lane and took the first off ramp I had the opportunity to use.  
  
So happens it was one that took me onto a side street close to Tej's anyway. I drove home rather sedately, knowing the cops would be looking for a purple 240sx with graphics on the side.  
  
I made it back to Tej's without incident and quickly darted into the garage just in case someone should drive by and see the car. Tomorrow I'd just be yet another 'ricer' who'd been doing stupid stuff on the freeway, but for today I'd be a prize if they caught me. Then a real criminal would steal their focus tonight and they'd forget all about me. It was always the way.  
  
I got out of the car and walked as calmly as I could to my bay to do some work on the car. I picked up a wrench and started tightening up some things. It was like it all hit me in a wave and I sorta flipped out.  
  
The whole thing with Leon getting hurt and with Vince leaving. Brian not being here and Rome thinking I was sleeping with Vince. My flight from the cops on the freeway, and pent up anxiety over the car not being done one time. I slid down the side of the car and sat on the ground leaning against it. I didn't cry, but I wanted to.  
  
I just sat there with my head on my knees and shook. It was all overwhelming to me.  
  
"You ok?" A female voice asked from above me. I tipped my head back and looked up at Fiona.  
  
"Yeah I'm fine."  
  
"Really. So why you shaking?"  
  
God this girl just doesn't quit.  
  
"Well, I had to drive Vince to the airport, one of our friends got hurt back home and Vince had to go home to be with him. I wanted to go but he wouldn't let me because he knows I'm not really ready. But I don't know if that's a good enough reason not to go home when one of my good friends is in the hospital."  
  
"That sucks. Why don't you go home to visit at least then?"  
  
It must seem so simple to people who haven't entered Dom's gravity field. Just go visit, leave again when you know its ok.  
  
These people don't know how much strength and energy it takes to break that orbit and strike out on your own. I'd managed to do it once. I knew I was right when I thought I couldn't do it again. I mean, Vince had told me not to come home because he'd known the same thing. Dom had this need to control everything in his life.  
  
From a car to the garage to our family and friends Dom had to control it all. I was no different. But it would all be different when I went back. But Vince was right and now was not the time for me to go back.  
  
"Because of how Dom is. If I go back, it doesn't matter why I go back or what I want he'll never let me leave again. Dom's like gravity, he pulls things in and then he refuses to let them go. I got away once, it was the hardest thing I ever did. I'll never get away again. We're all like his property and he doesn't like to let go of things he cares about."  
  
"Wow. Sounds like a real jerk."  
  
"He's not. Not really. It's just how life made him and he does have this magnetic quality. He doesn't even know he's doing it most of the time. He just pulls people in with his ways. I can't even really explain it. He's kinda like an alpha wolf with a pack. We're his pack and he has to take care of us, look out for us, make sure we have a safe place to live and food to eat. And in return he asks us to help feed the pack and run with the pack. It's complicated."  
  
"And this is the guy my brother cared for so much he abandoned his career?"  
  
"Yeah. Only I think the last part had more to do with Mia then Dom. Dom'll never go back to jail. He'll die first. He means that. It'd kill Mia if her older brother who she idolizes more then anything died. Brian had to save her from that. He loves her you know?" I asked looking up.  
  
"I know, and it scares me."  
  
"It scares me to." I answered her and laid my head back down on my knees. "It scares the hell outta me too." 


	32. Answer It

Chapter 32 – Answer It

I only let myself sit for a minute before I got up and turned back to the car.

"You're gonna work on that thing some more huh?"

"Damn thing's not gonna fix itself. I've tried waiting for it to do that for a while and no go."

Fiona actually giggled. Oh man. She giggles. Great. I have to live with her for the foreseeable future and she giggles. What next?

"Anything I can do?" She asked me, almost nervous of my answer.

"Not really. To be honest I'm just triple checking all the connections before I call the engine finished. I don't want anything to go wrong with this."

"So it's done?" She asked incredulously, like she thought I'd fail too.

"Well, obviously it'd drive better with shocks and springs and brakes...And wheels." I added then smiled at her to let her know I was kidding. She giggled again.

"Yeah, I can be kinda stupid about cars." She admitted. "Brian taught me to drive and not much else."

"We can't all know cars. I wouldn't have a job if everyone was a mechanic."

"True enough." She looked at me like she was in shock I was being civil to her.

In truth I don't know what possessed me to be civil to her anyway. It wasn't my style at all. But then again here was a girl who was very nice. She was almost like a female version of Brian, and I liked Brian. I thought he was great. So here was a slightly younger, a lot more female version of him. What wasn't to like?

At home it would be the fact she was a strange girl and therefore could be after Dom. I'd have to watch her all the time to make sure she wasn't and it would make me suspicious of her, she'd pick up on it and think I just plain didn't like her. And then since she'd be being nasty to me I'd return the favour. I couldn't have many female friends back home.

I had Mia, and all the guys, and maybe I never knew I was missing out on have friends who were girls before. There might be something to this whole girlfriends thing that I never picked up on before.

I continued working on the car and Fiona hung around and we chatted. It was sorta nice. I started to put the undercarriage back together and she handed me stuff and tools I needed. I had the back end of it back together at the end of the day.

Only the front end to go and its done. Good thing too since tomorrow is the last day of my week. I wanted to be cocky. I wanted to gloat. No one save Brian thought I could do it but I was gonna do it. I was so close there was no way I could lose. But that is where I stopped myself.

Because nothing in the car industry was ever that certain. And that was why I couldn't let myself get cocky or gloat. Or assume it was all gonna go to plan tomorrow and I'd be done. There were no guarantees in life. And that was doubly true with bitchy race cars.

"When do you think Bri will come home now that he's safe from getting his face kicked in?" I asked Fiona later, over supper. She cooked, I ate. It was a good arrangement. I don't know if I give off please-don't-let-her-cook vibes or if Brian ratted me out but she sat me down with some veggies to peel and chop and more or less forbid me from helping further. Kinda like me and not letting her do much more then pass me stuff when we were working on the car.

"I think Brian could have held his own against your friend I'll have you know. But I think he'll come home soon now that he doesn't have to worry about upsetting you by fighting with your friend."

"Very diplomatic." I chuckled. "Have you been talking to him at all?" She added the carrots I'd peeled and cut up to the pot of soup she was making.

"Yeah, last night. He and dad fought a lot but Brian says they're making progress on being in the same room together and not yelling or throwing punches. It's a big deal. They couldn't even talk on the phone before without a screaming match starting."

"What's the big deal there anyway?" Fiona gave me a puzzled look so I continued. "You know, why does your dad have such a big problem with Brian?"

"Well, because he gave up his career over some criminal." She held up a hand to stop my ready protest. "Don't bother Letty. I like you, I really do. You're pretty cool I've been coming to see, but you and your friends were criminals. Brian was supposed to do his job and send you to jail. He didn't and I maybe even see why, but that doesn't change the fact that he didn't do the right thing, he did the wrong thing. And our dad is a stickler for doing the right thing. Plus dad can't stand Rome. He never could, not since Rommie got into a lot of trouble as a teen. And now here Brian is breaking the rules, doing the wrong thing and living and working with Rome. It didn't go over well. Dad didn't talk to me for days after the first time I came home from visiting. And he really flipped when I came home with the 7. He was livid."

"Why? Lot's of people own RX-7's. They're a nice car, but not that rare."

"Yeah, but Dad knew that it was one of 'those' cars that Brian used for his illegal racing. He hated that I had a car made for breaking the law."

"He sounds like a real blast to live with." I said sarcastically, thinking of Dom's dad the whole time. He was so the opposite of Fiona and Brian's dad.

"He wasn't so bad till his kids got too old and he couldn't control us anymore, couldn't dictate our lives, couldn't make sure we never stepped out of line. What about your dad?"

"Didn't really have one." I answered her. I know it sounds dismissive but it's true. My own dad wasn't much of a dad, and I hardly ever saw him anyway. Dom's dad was the only real steady male influence in my life.

"What, he left you and your mom?" Fiona looked indignant on my behalf.

"I only wish!" I laughed without any humour. "No, he stuck around and then when he got pissed off he took it out first on my mom then on me if I wasn't smart enough to get out of the house before he found me. As soon as him and mom started to get into it was my cue to get the hell out."

"That's rough." Fiona was sincere, but like most kids from a stable home she had no idea what it was like or how to respond.

"It was life. I met Dom and Mia when I was 10 and that was it anyway. I practically moved into their house by the time I was 11. I guess Van Toretto was more like a dad then my own ever was."

"What was he like?"

"Great. So awesome. He took me in without a question because he somehow knew how it was at home without being told. I mean, my birthday was a few days before his own daughter, Mia's, and he had two separate birthday parties for us each year because he knew I wasn't going to get a party out of my fokes, but he still didn't want Mia and I to have to share."

"He sounds great."

"He was so great. He took us everywhere with him too. We all got to work in his garage and he taught me mechanics. He knew Vince only had it slightly better then I did at home so he included him in everything too. He took us racing with him every time he went and let us be on his pit crew. He just assumed I was sleeping over and eating at his house every day."

"One in a million huh?"

"Oh yeah. They'll never be another Van. He didn't hesitate to discipline me either, not after the first 6 months or so. And I had to take all my school report cards to him and I got the same punishments as Dom when my marks were poor."

"Not like Mia?"

"Mia never got a bad report card in her life. She's so smart it's scary. She's gonna be a doctor. I've never been apart from her this long before. We got lucky that she can drive to UCLA every day and she didn't have to move away to do med school."

"If I had to pick one thing about my dad that I loved best about him it would be the fact that he always stood up for me, he was always my protector. What would you pick about Van?" Fiona asked. I thought about it for a few seconds. It was all it took for me to decide what it was about Van I appreciated most.

"The fact that he approved of me and Dom. He didn't care Dom was what most people would consider too old for me. He didn't think I wasn't good enough for his son. It was almost like he knew we were supposed to be together and he helped push us together. He was never pleased with any other girl Dom took home."

"So other then his charisma what is it about Dom that makes him so special to you. No offence but from what Brian's told me about how he treats you I don't think he deserves you."

"It wasn't always like that, for one thing. It got worse when his dad died and worse again when he went to jail. Dom use to be my best supporter. Even before we were officially going out he use to take care of me. He use to make sure that anyone who picked on me got what they had coming to them. And when I was a bit older and able to hand out what they had coming to them on their own he made sure I didn't go too far. There were a lot of times him dragging me out of a fight was the only reason I didn't get kicked out of school or worse even put in Jeuvie."

"So where does this Vince guy fit into the whole thing?"

"Vince was always Dom's friend. They were almost as inseparable as me'n Mia. They always had their big plans of opening up a garage together, letting Van work on the little old lady from Pasadena's mustang while they tuned up the import 'rice rockets'. We all got our training from Van but we didn't want to work on the cars that Van saw. So many of 'em were junk and we wanted to work on the cars of people who had money. We did not want to try and get rust buckets past emissions year after year."

"Oh god, don't even talk about it. I don't know how you guys manage. I don't know if the 7 will pass. It's registered in Barstow so it has to pass California emissions. I have so much of the emissions stuff ripped off thanks to Brian and Jimmy I don't know what I'll do in a years time."

"You'll do what we do in L.A. Come to Dom's and he'll 'fix' your emissions issues right up. Being a mechanic who's licensed to do the tests has some advantages." I laughed at the look on her face.

"You lie?"

"Of course. There's no way that Leon's car could be on the road at all if we didn't. He couldn't make that rb26dett emissions legal if he did everything they require he do. So we lie. Who'll ever know?"

"You know."

"Yeah, but it's not like it's killing anyone for a car to put out slightly more ppm of hydrocarbons then it should. Besides I guarantee you that it's not hydrocarbons that our cars put out, no way there's any way there's unburned fuel coming out of our beasts. And rotaries are next to impossible to pass if they're not in stock condition emissions wise. They need all that crap to pass."

"I was raised that you don't pick and chose which laws you follow. They're all there for a reason."

"Yeah, well a wise man once said 'rules are made to be broken, it's just that you can't make a broken rule'. When you really love something, you're willing to break all the rules to have it. Racing and a fast race car is the something I love enough to break all the rules for it."

"I think I do too."

"I know Brian does, so it must run in the family."

"Yeah that's it." With that she put a big bowl of home made chicken soup in front of me along with fresh rolls.

We ate in companionable silence then I helped her tidy the kitchen. We were just sitting down to read together, her a fluffy romance and me a tech book on wheel alignments when my cellular link to the team went off. I looked at the phone with something that might have been bordering on panic singing in my veins.

"I'm sure he's fine Letty, but you better answer it." Fiona pushed me on.

"Hello?" I answered, trying to keep my voice level, to keep my fear out of my tone.

"Hey Lett." Vince answered my greeting. "How are things?"

"Fine, other then I'm worried about you and things there."

"Things are ok here. Leon's being kept over night but he's fine, it's just for observation."

"How's Kimi?"

"Who?" Vince sounded genuinely confused. He figured it out on his own though. "Oh you mean the damn car. It's a write off. Totalled beyond repair."

"Oh man. You told me it could be rebuilt. Does Leon know yet?"

"Nope. I thought it would be rebuildable. He'll be lucky if he doesn't go to jail Letty. I think he's got bigger worries then the damn car being wrecked."

"Would you see it that way if it was your car? Not only that but a car you couldn't easily replace either. I mean it's not like Leon has enough money lying around to just go buy another skyline."

"He can't drive in jail."

"He's not going to jail Vince. He might get a big fine but I don't think he'll go to jail."

"Hard to say. If they get him for reckless endangerment or something then it'll be worse then a fine Letty."

"Are you trying to get me to come home or something? I mean not only is his car wrecked he could go to jail? I'm coming home."

"No Letty. We can handle it."

"I'm gonna look like the biggest heartless bitch ever if I don't come home for this."

"They're not gonna know I told you or that you know Letty. You won't look like a bitch over this."

"I'll know Vince. I'll know that my friend was in the hospital and I stayed here instead of coming back to see him."

"You need to finish that car Letty. He'll never not be able to take you seriously again if you finish that car Letty. There's nothing you could do for Leon if you were here anyway girl. You might as well stay put."

"I guess. But I miss you and I feel really bad about Leon and his car."

"I know you do."

The door to the boat flew open and Brian walked in. "Hey. How are my favourite girls?" Brian asked with a smile.

"I gotta go Vince. Bye." I hung up on him before he could question me who was home. I'm sure he's staring at the phone right now and pissed at me. I also bet he's about to call me back. I turned off the phone and turned to Brian.

As soon as I looked into his kind blue eyes the whole story came out as I sobbed on him. He just rubbed my back through the whole thing and shushed me while Fiona got up and left us alone.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here Letty."

"You couldn't have known. But what the fuck am I supposed to do?"

"What Vince told you to do. Stay here and finish your car."

"But what about Leon?"

"What about him? You couldn't do anything for him there that you can't do for him on the phone from here. Just find out what hospital he's in and give him a call."

"Brian, you're smarter then you look."

"I've never heard that one before." Brian grinned. "Go, go call Vince back and get the number so you can give the ol Dawg a call."

"Ok. Thanks Bri."

I did what he said. I got the number from a very irate at me for hanging up on him Vince and gave Leon a call. We talked for awhile and it was clear he was gonna be ok. I didn't tell him about his car and perhaps he had some idea all was not well because he didn't ask about the car either.

But he did set my mind at ease over not coming back. He didn't want me to do that either. It was very kind of him to give me absolution from my guilt the way he did. I went to bed early feeling much better about not going back to California then I did before I called. Tomorrow is the big day. The car is finished and we test it out. I can't wait.


	33. Simple Things

Chapter 33 – Simple Things

I woke up the next day feeling pretty damn good. I got up, got dressed and headed to the kitchen for some cereal and juice to start the day so that I could go work on the car without worrying about a hunger induced headache. A nasty little event that I am prone to.

I was busily crunching away on Total Raisin Bran while listening to the morning news when Brian and his sister walked in. I looked up, shoveled another bite of cereal into my mouth and kept crunching.

"Morning." Fiona said. I gave a jaunty little wave. My mouth was full. Brian smiled.

"Someone's in a good mood." He taunted me affectionately. I swallowed and stuck out my tongue. I guess it still had some bits of cereal on it. "Letty that's gross!" Brian shouted at me, laughing the whole time.

"I'm just glad the car is almost done. Today is the day."

"The day for what?" Brian asked. Clearly mornings are not his smart time of day.

"The day it's done dumb ass. The day I get to start it up, the day it's ready to be driven, even if it will look like shit till it gets paint."

"I lost track of the time while I was gone. Shit. I can't believe it's been two weeks already." Brian sat down and grabbed the box of cereal and the milk.

"What are you doing?" I asked him in shock.

"Having breakfast. Why?"

"You know that's healthy food right?" I asked him, mock look of terror on my face. Brian didn't like breakfast unless it was swimming in its own fat and grease. Fiona laughed.

"Yeah, but it's ready now and I'd have to cook anything else."

"He might just implode due to his stomach not knowing what hit it." Fiona added and sat down to help herself to an orange out of the basket on the table.

"No kidding." I answered as I slurped the last of my milk out of my bowl.

"I'd forgotten just how much breakfast at Dom's looked like pigs around a trough." Brian teased as I wiped milk off my chin with the hem of my pre-stained garage wife beater.

"I'd forgotten just how horrible your taste in food was till I watched you eat half a pack of bacon and feed the other half of it to your best friend. Not to mention the three quarters of a dozen eggs you split to go with it, and half a loaf of junk white bread."

"Yeah, well..." Brian was trying to come up with a retort. I beat him to it.

"Even Vince can't pack food away like you can. I'd swear you had a hollow leg or somethin."

"Well, that's because I need the protein to run my huge brain, an issue that Vince does not have to worry about." Brian quipped back at me.

"Vince is just as smart as you are Brian. He doesn't get called Coyote for nothing."

"Yeah, I've seen lots of his smarts in action." Brian retorted sarcastically.

"Hey, he knew you were a cop from day one, you never fooled him. If you wanna call someone stupid you should be calling big bad Dominic stupid. You had _him_ fooled from day one."

"I guess." Brian couldn't dispute my logic so he let it go. Fiona had watched with a look of amusement on her face.

"You know you guys are just like brother and sister. You fight more then Brian and I ever did."

"We don't fight a lot. We have differences of opinion more often then some people is all." I said on my way out the door.

"Yeah, that's it." Fiona laughed at my back as I jumped off the back deck of the boat and headed up the grass toward the shop. I headed straight back to my area, turned on the music and started adding the front suspension to the car.

You know, some of this shit was not really meant to ever come off and it really does not want to go back on. I was having some trouble with it but I was still confident I'd have it done by the end of the day. And if I didn't then my day wouldn't end till I did have it done. It was that simple.

By lunch time I had it a quarter done. But I was confident that the parts I had gotten done were the hard parts. I was fairly sure I'd have it done by supper. But if not I had often put in days till 8 or 9 and I'd just do it again.

Lunch was something quick and unmemorable I ate at my bench and then I got right back to work. Mid afternoon saw me three quarters done. I was grunting with the effort of holding a strut in place while trying to get it to mount to the steering knuckle when Tej walked up.

"How's it goin girl?"

"It's goin." I answered and with another loud, very unladylike grunt/cuss word got the thing lined up and one of the very large bolts that held it in place in. That accomplished I took Tej's offered hand and stood up off the floor.

"It looks good. You think you gonna be done on time?"

"I don't think, I know."

"I see." Tej grinned.

"Yeah, get on! Get outta here. I gotta keep workin here." I smirked while I shoed him out of my space.

"Ok, but I wanna know the minute it's done."

"Ok, ok, but it ain't gonna fix itself, so you better let me get back to it."

"I get it, I get it." Tej headed away shaking his head and mumbling to himself.

I caught Rome giving me some sort of unreadable look but I shook him off and went back to work. I didn't have time to deal with my lingering anger toward Rome. I was too damn busy. Humming along with my music I went back to work and lost myself in the world of wheel bearings and brake rotors.

4:30 saw me bleeding off the clutch slave cylinder and the brakes. After that I put the wheels on and it was ready to test start. It was rollin on 18's, Enkei's Es-Tarmaks, and the shoes were Toyo's cause they were my favorite tire, as the decal on my car would lead you to believe. The brakes were Brembo of course, the suspension Koni, the clutch Act-II, the intake HKS, the add on turbo by Garrett, and I could really go on forever. Tej was likely to shit when he got the bills no matter how crazy he'd told me to go on building the car. I'd bought the best of everything. The car was so light from the factory nothing was needed in the way of weight reduction.

I realized I had the garage to myself at that point. I guess everyone else had gone to enjoy the sun down on the docks. I was the only one around. I turned the music up even louder to cover my yelling for joy that it was done. The car was done! On time. I did it.

Me!

Not Dom. Not Vince, Leon or Jesse. Me. It was my success. Mine alone. I did it by myself. Well, with a little help from Vince. But not enough to count. That's my story and I'm sticken to it. Of course I still had to start it.

I pulled the relay for the fuel pump and turned the key. The car tried to start like it was supposed to but it never cranked over. Of course it couldn't, not without gas. That was what I wanted. I wanted it to prime the oil and all the other fluids all through the engine before I put the stress of actually running on it.

After I cranked it a few times I put the relay for the fuel pump back in and got into the driver's seat. I took a deep breath, held it and turn the key. More sputtering as it tried to start. That's ok, they don't all start first try, try it again Letty. I repeated it all to myself over and over as I counted to thirty in my head and tried again. Whir whir whir whir, no answering roar to the cranking engine.

Shit!

It should have started by now if it was going to. God damn it. I had no idea what could be wrong with it. I'd primed it all, put the relay back in, checked the wires all over three times. I tested the battery and it was fully charged. I was fighting hyperventilating. I didn't have time for this.

Ok Letty, calm down. Think.

What does an engine need to start?

A mechanic who isn't incompetent working on it!

Stop putting yourself down, I admonished myself. What does it **really** need to start?

Air, fuel, spark and controls to run them all. Ok, jumping off point.

Car had lots of air, the K N filter was in place and properly connected. Air was covered.

Ok, spark. Checked the plug wires, none crossed. All six cylinders have sparkplugs, check. I put a spark tester on it and cranked it over. The sparks made little noises as they grounded out like when you touch someone after you rub your feet across carpet. So air, check, spark, check. Engine was in perfect time so it wasn't a problem with how I'd set up the timing belt or the ignition timing. Damn. Ok, next.

Fuel. Well damn, what could be wrong there? I put the relay back in. I don't know what the hell is wrong with this car but I'm gonna have grey hair when I wake up tomorrow. Ok, on with the tests. Check the injectors. They're firing. Double damn. I'm starting to run out of ideas. I do not want to ask for help with this.

I took a break and sat on the floor against the wall and just thought. What could be wrong with the damn thing? I was almost in tears looking at it sitting there, looking so normal, other then needing a paint job. But refusing to start. I'd been over everything. There was nothing else to check. I put my head down on my knees.

"You ok?" I looked up to see Brian looking down at me.

"No. Damn car won't start."

"Shit. You check it over?"

"Ten times." I said irately, I was pissed he was askin me stupid questions. But he was just trying to help. I took a deep breath. "Yes, I checked everything over and over."

"Ok, be logical. You got spark?"

"Yeah."

"It's not out of time is it?"

"Nope."

"You sure?"

"Well, valve timing is dead on, hard to know about ignition timing for sure when it doesn't run, but it looks good to me."

"You sure you didn't time the engine on the exhaust stroke instead of top dead center?"

"Yes, I have timed engines before."

"Ok, ok, just checking." Brian held up his hands in surrender.

"I know, but I checked that while I did it and again when it wouldn't start." I leaned my head back against the wall, still choking back frustrated tears.

"Primed the pump?"

"Oil and gas."

"Injectors firing?"

"Yep."

"You fill the tank? You know some cars don't run right under a quarter...." He trailed off as I started to laugh. I laughed till tears ran down my face. Brian looked confused. "You ok Let?"

"I forgot to fill the damn tank." I gasped. I had too. I was such an idiot.

"You what?" Brian still looked confused.

"I've been done with it for an hour or more, here trying to diagnose the no start and I forgot to put gas in it Brian. The damn tank is stone empty."

With that Brian started to join me in laugher. We both laughed till we were gasping for breath. It felt good. Now if the car just starts when I oh, put gas in the tank, life will be good.

"I guess I was so caught up in the big things I forgot a simple little thing like putting gas in the new tank."

"Oh man Letty, that's priceless. Letty, the secret behind DT performance forgot to put gas in the car. It's something any of us would do though."

"Well, let's fill it up and give it a try." I stood up.

And we filled the tank and then we primed the fuel pump again and I again slid into the driver's seat and turned the key. This time it whirred a few times and came to life with a roar.

Brian and I high fived and I yelled "yes!" at the top of my lungs. The I looked around and muttered, "Oh my, the smoke!" As the oil that I'd used to assemble the thing burned off.

"You know what we should do?" Brian asked.

"No, what?"

"Drive it down to the dock and surprise the hell outta Tej."

"Chumpy, that is the best idea you had all day." Brian slid into the passenger seat after hitting the button that would open the garage door. I pushed the clutch and put it in first. We rolled out the door and headed down to the garage.

We rolled right up behind Tej but he didn't turn around. I guess he didn't recognize the engine anymore. I hit the horn from a position about three feet behind him. He jumped in the air and spun around to glare at us.

Brian and I waved happily from the cockpit of his newly rebuilt car. His glare turned into a gaze of wonder. He walked around to my window.

"Holy shit you did it. It's done, and one day early."

"Naw, the work day was over, tomorrow morning was one day beyond two weeks. I'd say I got it done on time, but not early."

"But you still got it done. This is great." He was looking over the car like a kid at Christmas.

"Well, you'll want to try it out." I said and went to get out of the car.

"Naw, that's ok girl. You can just park it back in the garage. I'll try it out later. I'm busy right now." He sounded more scared then busy.

"You sure. I mean, you had me spend like 40,000 dollars on this car and you don't even want to drive it?"

"I do, I just can't right now. I'll go for a drive in it tomorrow."

"Ok, if you're sure."

"Yeah, perfectly. You and Brian take it for a spin and make sure it's runnin good and I'll take it for a run tomorrow."

"Ok then."

Brian and I took the car out with one of Tej's dealer plates on it. "Wasn't that a bit weird Bri?"

"What?"

"If I wrecked the Silvia and then after over a year it was finally back on the road I'd want to take it for a drive right away."

"Yeah, but he was busy. You know he'd have liked to take the car out Letty, but all those people are betting on his little water races n'stuff."

"Ok Brian but he still seemed weird about it."

"You'll see tomorrow, he'll want to drive it then."

"We'll see." With that I took a turn off to a back road and put the pedal down. The car was amazing. The weight was so perfectly balanced, the engine so totally responsive. I couldn't explain how it made me feel to drive a car like this. My car was great but this car was...

Perfect.

It was an honest to god race car. I was driving a real race car. I laughed with the shear joy of it all and Brian joined me. "You want to try it Brian?"

"You wouldn't mind?"

"It's not even my car." Plus I was falling in love with it. I felt like I was cheating on my own car. Raiden was great but this was a Car, Car with a capital C.

"Ok then."

I pulled over and we switched seats. Brian drove with a bit more restraint then I did but he still put the car through its paces. We had fun and by the end whether I drove it myself or not I had fallen for an Acura. Oh shit. I better take my car out for a run so I can remember why I love him so much.

We parked the car and Brian headed for the boat. He looked back over his shoulder. "You comin?"

"Not right now. I'm gonna go for a drive in my own car first."

"Ok, be safe."

"Yeah, thanks Brian. See you later."

"Later." He headed home and I got into my car. I tore off, able to be more daring in my own car then in a borrowed one. While I drove I thought about a lot of things.

I missed my friends. I missed them more when one of them was hurt. I hated the fact that I liked another car almost, and I stressed almost now that I was back behind my own wheel, liked another car as much as my own. I hated being without Dom, much as I was mad at him and I hated being in a fight with Rome.

I had this dropped feeling in the bottom of my stomach that I had a funny feeling wasn't going to go away till some of these issues had answers. One of the things I was going to worry about was Leon and his car/not going to jail issue. I'd have to call Vince again in the morning and see how things were.

And that made me think of something I could do that would make me feel a bit better about not being there for Leon. I headed back to the garage with some things a bit more settled.

For now.

I went to the boat and walked in on Brian and Fiona playing cards at the kitchen table.

"You wanna play?" Fiona asked.

"Um, maybe later." I said and looked at Brian. "Bri?"

"Yeah."

"You know how Leon wrecked his car?"

"Yeah?" Brian looked at me in curiosity.

"Do you think I could fix her like I fixed Tej's car?"

"Sure Letty. You could try at least, but the skyline is in California."

"Well, Vince could ship it here. He's been here so him knowing the address won't be a big deal. I mean, he'd have to get it back from the police though. Is there any way that could happen?"

"Yeah, if they don't need it for evidence. What if Leon asks for it back?"

"Vince could just tell him the cops crushed it. Then when we show up back in California with it it'll be a total surprise to him."

"Didn't Vince tell you the car was totaled?"

"Yeah, but so was Tej's Acura. That's good as new, so why shouldn't the skyline get a similar treatment?"

"No reason." Fiona broke in. "If you want to try to do it for your friend then you should try to do it. I'll have my dad try to pull a few strings to get the car released."

"Fiona, I don't think asking your dad to do my team any favors is a good idea."

"He doesn't have to know who the car is for, just that I want it here."

"How will your dad have any pull with LAPD?"

"He's FBI." Brian answered on a sigh. "He's got lots of pull. Its how I made detective so fast."

"He's gonna know that it's a street racing car Fiona. You told me he hates anything that's against the law."

"He does, but I'll just tell him it's a gift for a good friend. He'll help. He might not like it but he'll help."

"Ok, I'll call Vince in the morning to get it started."

"Why not call him now?" Brian asked. "It's only 12 here so it's only 10 there. He's not gonna be asleep."

"Ok ok, sheesh, who's more excited about this?"

"Well, I liked Leon. He was pretty cool after the first night."

"Why wasn't he cool on the first night?"

"Because he wanted to help Vince beat the snot out of me."

"Yeah, my guys rove in packs."

"You can say that again. Even Jesse was gonna join in."

"He follows Vince a bit blindly. He looks up to ol' coyote."

"I coulda taken any one of them, but not all three at once."

"You're lucky Dom didn't join in."

"No kidden!"

"Is he big?" Fiona broke in.

"He's a fair size." I answered with a smirk.

"Letty, that smirk better not be over what I think it's over." Brian cringed. Fiona laughed.

"Well, you've seen him. Ever since boy got out of Lompoc he's been pretty built."

"He did time in Lompoc?" Fiona asked.

"Yeah, two years for aggravated assault. Over the thing with his dad." I elaborated. Fiona nodded. "And Brian, you's a pervert to think I was implying other things."

"You had that look on your face." Brian protested his pervertedness. I picked up the cell phone that Brian had pretty much given to me. The FBI never called once. I dialed up the house and listened to it ring.

"Hello." A deep baritone came across the line. Dom answered. Oh shit. I never anticipated that.

"Hey. I need to talk to V." I cut to the chase.

"Letty." He sighed, a deep heartfelt sigh that almost made me feel bad for him.

Almost.

"Where are you?" His voice sounded so...Well, sad. Really sad. I moved into my room to have this conversation in private.

"I'm home Dom."

"No you aren't!" He yelled at me. So much for sad. "Your home is here with me!" Eureka, there with him, not there with the team.

"Not right now it's not Dom. It's here where I am. You made sure it wasn't my home when you decided you didn't want me to be with you in it." He sighed again. I was pushing his buttons from 3000 miles away. It's hardly fair I guess. It's one of my issues I need to work out. "I'm sorry." I mumbled. I might be sorry but I didn't have to like it.

"Sorry for what?" He asked warily. I'd made him that way, always saying it then having a smart-alecky comment when he responded.

"For pushing you around over the phone. But Dom, I still think I need some time alone here."

"You're not alone. You live with another man. Vince told me." Dom sounded strange, kinda jealous, kinda sad, kinda angry. I kinda liked the jealous part. He'd never really gotten jealous of things I did before.

"I have a roommate who is male. I am not living with another man, living with another man."

"Same thing." Dom said petulantly.

"To you maybe." I smiled. Dom growled. "Dominic Toretto, are you jealous of my roommate?"

"N...No. What would make you say that?"

"The way you said living with another man. You're jealous." I giggled. I giggled on the phone with Dom. Girls giggle. Tough racer chicks don't giggle. I don't know if he's ever heard me giggle before. I giggled more because I was analyzing what me giggling on the phone meant.

"I am not jealous." Dom growled. "Letty, _I_ am not jealous." He tried to convince me but I could tell he was. I could tell he was embarrassed because I caught him being jealous. He's never had a reason to be before. He's given me lots of reasons but he's never had one.

"Yes you are. I think I like it. I think we're getting somewhere here Dominic. Jealous means you care about me."

"Damn Letty, of course I care about you. Do you think I'd have stayed with you all this time if I didn't?"

"Well, I admit you breaking up with me sorta shook my confidence a bit Dom."

"Shit Letty. I didn't break up with you!"

"Then what did you do?"

"I told you I needed time to get over some stuff."

"That's breaking up Dom. Taking time to work out stuff is together. Singular I need to work stuff out is breaking up. It's right along the 'it's not you it's me shit' that guys pull when they want you to go away but they don't want you to feel bad about it." I was having a mostly civil conversation with Dom about relationships. Maybe things were looking up. Maybe it was time to move onto neutral territory.

"It's not how I meant it Let."

"I know, but it still came off that way. This is going to be good for us Dom. You'll see. How's Leon?" How's that for a segue?

"He's fine. He doesn't know that his car is wrecked yet. He wasn't awake when they got him out of it."

"Did they have to cut him out?" I asked. That could make it hard to fix.

"No. But he wasn't conscious so they had to help him out." Dom made one of his little I-don't-want-to-tell-you-this-but-I-don't-know-how-not-to noises. "He could go to jail over it Letty."

"For what?"

"For reckless endangerment. They figure he was going a buck twenty in downtown L.A. when he wiped out."

"It's not like Leon to drive that fast in the city. Do you know what he was thinking?"

"He'd just broken up with Karla and he was pissed."

"Who's Karla?" My eyes narrowed and the question came off really bitchy. But I mean, my guys were getting girlfriends and I wasn't there to kick the puta's asses when they broke their hearts? I didn't like that one bit.

"Some girl he liked who didn't like him as much as he thought she did. He caught her with another man."

"Oh, poor Leon. Did he really like her, like really?"

"I guess. I didn't see him with anyone else for the week they were together. I mean, I know he was only really mad about it because he caught her cheating."

"I know how he feels." It was out before I thought about it. I didn't mean to say it to him.

I swear.

I really didn't want to bring it up. He has said he's sorry a hundred times and it had been a long time since he'd done it. I did know how Leon felt to catch someone he thought was exclusively involved with, with someone else. But I didn't have to make Dom think I was throwing it in his face. He'd gone silent. "Jesus Dominic, I'm sorry. I just didn't think." I sat on my bed.

"Guess it's just the truth Letty." He sounded so very...Beaten. I was upset with myself that I'd made him feel that way. So much for still angry with him I guess.

"Yeah, but I didn't have to bring it up. It was a long time ago."

"But I hurt you and I'm sorry."

"I know you are Dom. I mean it, I'm sorry that I spoke without thinking." I really was. But this felt positive too. He was talking to me about serious things like feelings and old hurts and neither of us were yelling.

"I did it Letty, I guess it's not a crime to talk about it."

"But if we're gonna get past it then I have to let it go." And I did. And he had to stop doing it. "But just to be clear we're talking about me letting the past go. If the past ever becomes the present then I don't think I'll ever let it go again, and I'll be redecorating faces again too."

Dom laughed. He actually laughed. It was deep and rumbling and echoed in my soul. How long had it been since we'd laughed together like we were? Too long. "I read you Letty. Letty?"

"Yeah Dom?"

"What was that name that Brian use to have for you. Use to go around here callin you?"

"Why?"

"Just cause."

"Reina. He use to call me Reina."

"What's that mean?"

"You know what it means Dom. I'm sure he told you."

"No he didn't. What's it mean." I knew he knew what it meant but he wanted me to tell him again for some reason that only Dom knew. I decided to oblige him.

"It means queen Dom. He called me that because you were the king and I was the queen."

"Not was Letty. Are. You are the queen. _My _queen. Don't forget."

"I won't." I almost cried. This is Dom being this sweet. I sniffled. It doesn't happen much but when it does...Oh boy! "Can I talk to Vince now?"

"Yeah." I heard him get up and move around the house, then start down the basement stairs.

"Dom?" I asked in a small voice.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad we talked." My way of saying I miss you without coming right out and saying it.

"Me too. Here's Vince. Um Letty?"

"Yeah Dom?"

"Yo Quiero." He said it so quietly I wasn't even sure I'd heard him right and his spoken Spanish had never been that great. If I heard him right he'd just told me he wanted me. I wondered just what he meant by it. He wanted me back, he wanted me because he hadn't slept with anyone since I left. I have to think he means he misses me too and he wants me back. I didn't get a chance to ask him about it because he handed over the phone to Vince without another word.

"Letty?"

"Hey V."

"What's the matter Let?"

"Nothing's the matter. Why?"

"You sound like you're crying."

"I'm not crying Vince. I was just talking to Dom."

"Good talk?"

"Yeah. Good talk. So, I need your help V."

"With what Letty?" He sounded suspicious, like he wasn't gonna like whatever came next.

"I want you to ship Leon's car to me. I have a contact that's gonna get the car outta impound but I want you to send it to me. And you can't tell anyone."

"What do you want that hunka junk for Letty?"

"I'm gonna fix it for him."

"Let, you're in over your head." Vince growled.

"Maybe, but the thing is junk as it is right?"

"Yeah."

"Then what's the difference if you send it to me and let me try to fix it up?"

"None I guess." He didn't sound happy about it.

"Tell no one Vince. I mean it. I want it to be a surprise."

"Ok. Night Letty."

He just didn't want to talk to me anymore because a) I was frustrating him and b) he wanted to go pump Dominic for info on what we talked about. "Night Vince." I answered and hung up. I walked back out to the kitchen table and sat down heavily into a chair.

"How'd it go? Is Vince going to send the car?"

"Yeah, under protest."

"He protested for some time huh?" Fiona asked, smiling.

"No, Dominic answered the phone not Vince."

"How'd that go?" Brian asked, concerned.

"Well. We worked some stuff out. I think when I go back things'll be different."

"That's good. You set a date?"

"Nope, you're safe. For now." Brian blanched slightly and I laughed. "Chill chumpy. I'll protect you from big bad Vince when we go back."

"It's not Vince I'm worried about."

"Oh?"

"Not only am I going to be the lying cop to Dom, I'm gonna be the lying cop who kept you away from him."

"I can control Dominic, don't you worry."

"Ok." Brian didn't look all that relieved. We played a bit of cards then all headed off to bed shortly after. I got up the next day and headed up to the garage to find Tej staring at the car.

"I know it's ugly right now but with the right paint it will look just as good as new." Tej jumped at bit.

"Yeah. You did good. Go ahead and start ordering the paint and interior stuff you need. I can't wait to see what you do with it from a design point of view."

"Thanks."

"I can't believe you are actually going to let _her _paint the car!" Suki broke in. "Tej, that's what I do around here."

"I know Suki but a deal is a deal. I said she could do it and she's gonna do it."

"But Tej!" Suki started to whine.

"Oh for God's sake, he said no you little whiney brat." I said and stared her down.

"You shut up you little puta!"

Oh no she didn't. "You better muzzle your bitch before I put her outta her misery." I addressed Tej not Suki.

"You're gonna pay!" Suki screamed in her whiney little voice and flew at me. I met her half way. I got one good punch in proving the little bitch didn't learn her lesson from last time. That was about when Tej grabbed her and Rome grabbed me and they hauled us apart.

"I told you girls to leave it on the street!" Tej roared. I shook Rome off and glared at him. He backed off.

"I tried. I can't help it that little miss thing here is a spoiled brat!"

"It's not my fault that she whores herself out to you and Brian and Rome to get her own way!" Suki pouted, thinking the fact that Tej and Rome were still close would protect her. No such luck. My hand snapped out and slapped her upside the head before she knew what was coming to her. "Hey!" She whined.

"Shut that mouth before I shut it for you." I did my best impression of Vince's growl. "Besides that I've been with the same guy for the last 6 years. Can you say that?"

"Enough!" Tej broke in again. "Suki, you have your own space, it's time you went there." Suki's bottom lip came out and she looked like she had more to say. "Go!" Tej said firmly and she went, with a backwards glare for me. Tej turned back to me. "I don't know why she's like that with you, she's never acted like that before. She's not really whiney normally."

"Can't take getting her ass handed to her I guess." I smirked.

"Can't be, she's been beaten before. Mostly by guys I guess. We don't get too many female racers around here." Rome added.

"I don't care. I just wish she'd leave me out of it." I said. "So, Tej, you wanna take this bad boy out for a spin?"

"Sure." Tej sounded anything but sure but he picked up the keys and started the car. He left the garage at a snails pace, leaving me alone with Rome, who was busily giving me a look like he had something to say.


	34. Birth of the Phoenix

Chapter 34 – Birth of The Phoenix

"So, you got it done on time huh?" Rome asked. Rather inane of him really. Obviously it's done. Does he expect my reply to be 'well duh!'? Thank god I'm no valley chick.

"I guess so." I started wiping down my tools and putting them away.

"Letty?"

"Wha?" I looked up at him, one eyebrow raised in annoyance combined with curiosity.

"I owe you an apology. Brian told me about your friend and I really over reacted."

"Yeah, you did. But don't think that telling me you had to get Brian's word for it over mine is gonna make me fall at your feet and wish we never fought." Rome had the good sense to blush a bit over his failure to trust me.

"Well. It's just that..." Rome trailed off.

"It's just that what?" I asked him, curiosity peaked.

"I had a girl I really liked once, back when Brian and I were kids and she played around behind my back. I never got serious about a girl since. It's why I'm just looking for a good time when I take girls out and ever since she played me like that I haven't really trusted." Rome studied his shoes in embarrassment. Or at least I assume he's embarrassed. He could be one of those people who's faces give them away when they lie.

"Well, I had a boyfriend that cheated on me more then once. I don't use it as an excuse to go around not trusting anyone."

"I know. I, it's just...You're the first girl I really liked enough to care whether you played on me or not."

"Rome, that's not a good idea anyway. You know I'm not looking for another boyfriend. I'm going home, maybe even soon and I'm going home to Dom."

"I know you say that, but if you fell for me, I'd be better for you then he could be. I'd never play on a woman like you Letty. And then when I started to think you liked me too I guess it went to my head that you liked me back. When I heard you stayed with your friend in the same bed I just saw red. It was like Kara all over again."

"I do understand Rome. I know where you're coming from, but I was more into you because you were fun and because I didn't think you were looking for serious. It wouldn't be fair for me to let you think that I might decide to stay with you because I can't. I have to go make a try with Dom. I owe myself that, and I owe it to Dom."

"I'll buy you owe it to you Letty, but you don't owe anything to Dom. You stayed by him when he didn't deserve it."

"Yeah, I did. But he deserves it now, and I deserve to know if it can be better, the way it was." I held his gaze. Rome sighed.

"Ok, but friends?" He asked and held out his hand for me to shake. I took it and gave him a quick hug.

"Friends." I smiled. I was glad not to be fighting with Rome. I do like him. Maybe even more then like him, but it's not fair to him to pretend like it can ever be a forever thing because it can't.

"So, what do you have planned for this car?"

"Tej's car?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, that's a surprise. You'll have to find out when everyone else does."

"You can't be serious."

"As a heart attack." I smiled an evil smile. People hate to wait. Anticipation kills us.

Tej came back just then and prevented any further talk between us.

"Runs like the day it was new." Tej told me.

"Good. You weren't gone long."

"I like my truck better." Tej admitted and smiled. "More luxury. I'm gettin old."

"Yeah, whateva." I grinned. "Such a shame to let a fine lady like this go to waste."

"You get her lookin like she should and then we'll see. I don't race anymore girl, I wasn't kidden you on that, but maybe I'll show it."

"I'll get on it then."

"Do that." Tej walked away into his office and shut the door. I climbed into the Acura and shut the door.

"Where you going?" Rome asked.

"I'm going to the body shop. I want them to do the base coat. I'll do the graphics then have them clear coat it. I can't get the paint as perfect as a body shop can."

"Why not?"

"They have better equipment, and Tej's buddies have a down draft bake oven."

"So do we. Tej has Suki hooked up. She's got it all right here."

"Like I'll be allowed to use it!"

"It's still Tej's store."

"I don't think he'll want to listen to her bitch if he let's me use something she considers her space."

"Ask him before you take off to pay to go somewhere else. Unless you don't know how to paint the whole car. I mean, if you don't that's no big deal, get it done somewhere."

"I know how, I just wanted it to be perfect. More perfect then I can get it in a paint booth made with tarps in the back of the garage."

"Ok, well, ask Tej. You won't regret it."

"I'll ask him already. You are a worse nag then Brian."

"That hurt." He made a pouty face. I pulled a face back.

"Muffin!" He laughed. I walked up to Tej's door and knocked before letting myself in.

"Troubles already?" Tej asked, looking up from his desk at me.

"Not really. It's just that I was gonna get the guy that did the frame to do the base coat on the car but Rome says I should do it here. It's just that I figure that'll cause you issues with Suki." I fought the need to call her Miss Bitch.

"It might, but she needs to get over her shit someday and I don't want to pay to get the car painted somewhere when I paid for all the shit to do it here already. Tell her I told you it was fine and she can see me if she has any issues with that."

"Ok, but if she gets physical with me I'm not gonna just take it."

"I don't think she'll pull that again. Call me if she gets really bad."

"We'll do." I answered and let myself out of the office. I asked Jimmy for directions since Rome seemed to have left and headed for the paint booth.

I pulled the car right in and shut it off. I got out and started looking over the supplies.

"What are you doing here?" Suki came up behind me and started with the bitch questions right off.

"Painting a car." I tried to stay calm. The 'You can't fight everybody' lecture running through my head.

"What are you doing painting it here in my shop?"

"Tej told me to and he said that if you had an issue with that to tell you to take it up with him." I spit it out. I didn't want to send my issues to Tej. I wanted to handle it right here, right now. It wasn't in me to tattle or let someone else deal with my fights. I wanted to settle this myself, the good old fashioned way of putting a fist through her face.

"I'm gonna take it up with him and you'll be out of here so don't get comfortable."

Ok, this has to stop. What is this over anyway? I never did anything but call Brian a name. A name he doesn't mind, that he takes as a compliment for crying out loud.

"Ok Suki, let's get to the bottom of it. What the fuck is your problem with me? I never did anything to you. You started this off with a big old chip on your shoulder and you're the one who keeps it going. You have to shoot your big mouth off every chance you get and I know every time you do it you're just daring me to retaliate. What up wit that?"

She looked floored, like she didn't think I'd ever talk to her in a semi-civil tone, or ever bother to ask her why she didn't like me. I normally wouldn't have. But I had to know because this had to stop. I couldn't keep beating her down because Tej was gonna get really pissed and if she kept baiting me then I was going to keep getting in fights with her and I was gonna beat her down.

"Because..." She trailed off. Just what I thought. She doesn't even really know why she started it. "Because you came in here, Miss perfect Racer, Miss Perfect Mechanic, and miss good looking too and you started to take over things." She stamped her foot at this point. Wow, she's spoiled.

"I came here totally by accident. I didn't take over anything, just because I happened to know Brian from before it was ever your business."

"Well, Tej likes you, Rome likes you, Brian idolizes you and now here you are using my shop, the one part of this place that's mine. I'm not strong enough to work on cars, and I don't like to get dirty anyway but this is my thing and now here you are taking over it too!"

"What else did I take over?" I asked in an icy calm voice. If she can't work on cars then it would be hard for me to take her place in the garage.

"The guys. They don't treat me like they use to since you got here. It use to be cool to them that I was a girl and I could race as good as they can and that I liked to design cars even if I couldn't build them and that I was a great artist. Brian spoiled me, Tej tried to pick me up and Rome was warming up to me, but now they have Letty the perfect racer who designs her cars and builds them too. And who's tough as nails and use to sleep with The Great Dom Toretto. And they'd all rather spoil you then me!"

"Funny I didn't feel spoiled while Tej had me slaving over his car, Brian had to run away from his own home to avoid getting killed by my angry friend and someone, who I'm beginning to see was never Fiona but a certain other little spoiled bitch made Rome think I was screwing my best friend."

"Listen bitch, I was here before you and I'll be here when you're gone."

"Yeah, too bad Brian's coming with me." I took a guess that 'her bullit' was the one she gave most of a care about and threw that in her face. I got lucky.

"What do you mean he's going with you?" She looked like she was totally floored. Score one for Letty! One that didn't involve me hitting her. Well, at least not in the face or other physical ways. I'd say I hit her where it hurt alright.

"When I go home he's going home to Mia. He's coming with me." Why do I care what she thinks? I don't know but I do. "Besides, you're into girls, what do you care about Brian and Rome and who they pay attention to?"

"You know, sometimes people make mistakes when they're young." Suki lost some of her fight and looked embarrassed to me.

"You mean like mistakenly thought they liked girls instead of guys?"

"Liked both and mistakenly made it exclusively one way."

"So which one is it that you have a thing for?" I asked her and waited to see if she'd answer.

"Tej." She admitted. So that was her whole problem. She wanted to let on she liked the guys, mostly Tej, but couldn't because she'd been telling them all she was gay for too long. I get a kick out of her saying make a mistake when you're young. She couldn't be much more then 20. Almost makes me feel old. But I mean, really, she's hardly out of her experimental stage. If she discovered she's bi not gay I doubt anyone will be too upset with her. Most of the male species will be glad to have her back on their side. She's pretty in a delicate little miss sorta way.

"Damn, just tell him you like him. He clearly has a thing for you in some way. I don't think he'll be all that upset."

"How can I just tell him? "

"Go up to him and tell him you've decided he finally got the right tools and that you'll let him take you to dinner? I don't know, I never had to take back telling someone I was gay before, but if you really like him why would you want to go around unhappy for the rest of your life? I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Waiting around for things to get better only means you end up doing a lot of waiting around and don't get to see a lot of the better part. Make your move sooner, not later."

"Why are you being nice to me?" Suki looked unsure. I guess I can't blame her. We haven't had the best relationship up until now.

"I cant keep on beating you up, Tej doesn't like it. Plus it's getting tiring and I never knew why you didn't like me in the first place."

She nodded. "Well, you go ahead and start the car. I'm gonna go talk to Tej."

"Luck." I told her and started rooting though paint books for the right color of paint for the car. She left.

An hour later I still wasn't sure what colour to paint the car. I had the design all planned. Or at least I knew what the focal point was going to be. But I didn't know how to put it on the ride. I didn't know what colour would set my main element off best. I didn't know if I should paint the car like a scene, or pick a base colour that would compliment the colours of the hook design. I was flipping through House of Kolor catalogs not seeing anything that caught my eye.

I was sitting around, just thinking about what I was gonna do with the car. I was no further ahead. I had my hook but no idea how to set it up. I was chewing on a pen cap staring off into space when Suki came back into the paint booth.

"How's it going?"

"It's not." I replied.

"Why?"

"I know what I want but not how to set it up." Why am I admitting this to her? For all I know she's just gonna turn around and use it against me.

"Well, what do you want to do?"

I gave her a look. I wasn't sure if I wanted to share that with anyone yet.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"I'm not sure I want help." I answered, and felt the need not to kill are fragile truse, so I added, "I want to figure it out myself. It just doesn't want to come to me."

"I understand. You want a hand let me know."

"I will. Thanks." She nodded. I'll never let her know how much it cost me to say thank you to her. But it was nice of her to offer.

It came to me in that instant. I knew how it was going to look. I started writing out paint codes and quantities like there was no tomorrow. I was going to have a huge House of Kolor order because only about a quarter of the colors I needed were already here.

It took me three weeks to do. Three weeks after the week it took to get all my paint. I base coated it a very metallic House of Kolor light blue, like the desert sky. This'll all make sense in a minute. Stay with me and trust me on this one. I know sky blue isn't a color that makes you think of speed but this one will all work out.

After the base coat was on and all sanded, touched up and sanded some more I cured it and moved on. The rest of it was going to be half airbrushed and half hand painted. I painted the bottom quarter of the car between the wheel wells like a desert, complete with a pyramid on each side. So the desert sand blended into the sky like you were looking down from the sky to the earth. I painted a sun on the roof of the car and textured the blue to make it look like the midday sun was beating down on the desert. So the blue of the body sparkled a lot because of the extra fleck in it and I'd done the desert in mica paint so it had lots of shine but no metallic fleck. It made it look really real somehow. The sun I did with metallic too because I wanted it to look like it was on fire, like the real sun.

Then I moved on to the star of the design. The hood. This was the part I had to do by hand. I got a pallet and put all my colors out on it. There were a lot of them. They were all House of Kolor highly metallic shades. I wanted this part to turn out like a jewel, because that was what this was to me. I started to paint.

I started at 2pm to do the hood. When I looked up to a knock on the door I glanced at the clock and it was 8pm.

"Hold on a sec!" I called and put the final touch to the hood. I stood up, cracked my back and went to answer the door. No one was seeing it till after the clear was on and set up.

"Hey." I said to Brian as I shut the door behind me.

"Not even gonna let me get a peek?"

"Not till it's done, same as everyone else."

"You've been at that a long time. You high off paint fumes yet?"

"A little dizzy." I admitted and laughed.

"I'm taking you out to eat. I will not take no for an answer. We've hardly seen you for three weeks."

"I know, but it's almost done."

"Something arrived today. I didn't want ot bother you earlier."

"What came today Brian?" I hate surprises. They've been unpleasant one too many times in my life.

"I'll take you to see it on the way to my car." Brian suddenly looked sort of grim.

"Ok, let's go."

We walked to the main garage and Brian let me in and flipped on the lights. And back in my bay was Leon's skyline. Or what was left of her. Poor Kimi. The thing is wrecked. Maybe worse then the NSX was.

I'm glad I saved most of my racing winnings since I got here because this is gonna cost.

"Brian, this is bad."

"I know. Think you'll take help on this one?"

"Who'd want in on such a hopeless cause?"

"Me." Brian sighed.

"Why?"

"I know Skylines and that might help you out. Plus it can only help me out when we go back right? You can tell them all how much help I was and maybe they won't kill me."

He has a point. I could use the help. He's finally serious about going back. This is going to be good. Hard, but good. And first the Acura must be finished.

"We'll start it as soon as I get Tej's done. I'll clear it tomorrow and then we'll have a big unveiling."

"Ok."

We ate, we went to bed. I got up and headed straight to the paint booth. I spent a few moments admiring the sparkling colors on the hood. Rich reds, golds, purples, blues and greens.

I changed the gun over to clear coat and sprayed the car. I left it to bake and took a much needed break. When it was done I moved it outside and covered it over and went to get the rest of the guys.

"You ready for this?" I asked as we all walked toward the cloth covered mound that was Tej's new car.

"Oh yeah." They all answered. I hadn't given so much as a hint to any of them.

"Ok, here she is." I said and pulled the car cover off. Gasps went up around the group. I waited for the first comment on the finished design.

"Wow." Tej looked speechless.

"Letty, that's beautiful." Brian said, looking from the car to me and back again.

On the hood of the car to fit the desert scene I'd painted a Phoenix in flight. It looked like it was flying across the hood and it took up most of the space of the hood. It was all done in jewel tones. I'd researched on the internet what the Phoenix looked like and what it meant. The description I'd used read like this.

"_Wild poppy and ripe pomegranates are the colors of the phoenix's shoulders and breasts. Its tail is of tawny hue, flecked with purple spots. Gems glow inside its exquisite ivory beak. Around the phoenix's head are a diadem and circle of rays, which only brighten its sapphire eyes. Like a mix of the adorned pheasant and the peacock, the phoenix is nobly agile, a portrait of beauty."_

I'd tried to capture that feeling on the car. I'd written 'The Phoenix' in script across the top of the windshield. The sponsorship decals were tasteful. Present but small. But the team all looked sorta stunned.

"I went with a Phoenix because they're reborn from the ashes just like this car was. The Phoenix knows when it's time to be reborn, stronger then before. Just like I hope this car is now." I looked around nervously. Why wasn't anyone saying anything?

"It's perfect. It couldn't be more perfect." Tej told me, smiling. "And guess what?"

"What?" I asked.

"It's going racing tonight?"

"Really? You're gonna race it?" It looked so good Tej was gonna race it?

"Nope."

"You're just gonna show it off?" I guessed. What he said next couldn't have shocked me more.

"No. You're gonna race it!"


	35. Ready Or Not

Chapter 35 – Ready or Not?

I was gonna race it? What the fuck is he thinking? He's going to put me behind the wheel of that wonderful car and let me turn it lose on a crowd of unsuspecting little racer boys?

I can't remember the last thing that made me so damn excited.

I can't remember the last thing I wanted more then I want the chance to run that Acura.

I can't remember the last thing that scared me totally shitless.

What if I crash the damn thing? What if I lose because I'm not sure of the car? I've only driven it three times. It's not my car. I can't be as crazy with a borrowed ride as I can with my own. I'll be 'on my best behavior' the whole time I'm driving it. It'll make me check myself and I won't race at my best.

"Me?" I croaked out loud since Tej seemed to be waiting for some response. I straightened up and made a mental vow not to let anything else he said cause me to show my shock on the outside.

"Yeah, you. You've proved you can race in your own car. I've driven this thing, it seems ready to run. You not confident in your build or something?" Tej asked me, smirking.

"Hell no! I'm confident in my build; this car can take anything on the road. But it's a damned expensive car. What if something happens to it? I mean, you crashed out in it, what if I do?"

"Then you'll fix it. You already know how. It's not optional. You're racing the car. Tonight. Be ready by 11 to roll out." Tej walked off with a strange look on his face.

"What the fuck Brian? Is this another one of his tests?" I asked Brian, still not sure what to think. "I beat Suki, I beat Rome. Who else does he want me to beat? It's not like he races. I don't get it."

"I don't know Reina. But I do know you're good for it girl. You can win in this car. Its better then your car anyway. You know it is." Brian saw my scowl and continued anyway. "You don't have to like it to know it's true."

I gave him a nasty look but kept my mouth shut. He was right. I had to calm down.

"I know it," I growled out. "I'm going for a drive. I'll be back later." I walked away from the crowd and Suki's booth, up toward the garage.

"You're not taking the Phoenix?" Brian called after me, laugher in his voice. I spun around and flipped him off then continued walking up the hill. My car was parked in the garage, next to the Skyline.

I'd sent it off to get the body work done while I'd finished Tej's car. It took them longer to get to it then it had Tej's car since the Skyline wasn't a rush job, much as they wanted to have their logo on it when it was back on the road. As if, after making me wait for two and a half weeks to have it back. Not that I would have had time to work on it anyway but they still made me wait. I don't take well to being kept waiting on anything. Over the time it was gone I had had one conversation with Vince about how Leon was taking the loss of it.

It wasn't very well. He'd flipped out when they told him it was crushed and destroyed and he'd never see it again. He'd spend the next week in his room, more depressed then anyone had ever seen him. Leon doesn't really get depressed. He's the sorta go with the flow easy one and it takes a lot to really phase him. I talked to Mia about it and she said that not even her famous barbequed chicken got him out of his room to associate with the team. He just hid in the basement and moped about the damn Skyline.

Leon won't hear of going to races. He hides in his room when they party afterward. He hasn't had a girl over for _any_ reason since it happened. That, for Leon, is pretty close to the end of the world. That made me more worried about him then anything else. Ok, he might still be upset about the girl he was running away from when he crashed, but normally he and Vince would have the theory 'if you fall off the horse you need to get right back on and ride again'. Ok, that's crude, but it's true. He won't even talk to me on the phone anymore. He's gotta get over it soon! I mean, it's just a car. I doubt he'd appreciate me tellin him that though.

Of course the good thing for me is he absolutely won't hear of buying another car either. That means I'm not going to show up with the skyline all done only to find out he got another car he likes more. That would be the worst case scenario. It's not likely to happen either but it would still suck. The skyline project is pretty ambitious. Brian asked me the other day how I plan on getting home with two cars. I have no idea how yet. Ship one? But then how do I make sure the shipped car arrives before me? I'll have to sort that out when I go to leave I suppose.

I took a tight corner and made my tires chirp, which brought me back to reality. That was in the future, all that stuff with Leon and the Skyline. My race in Phoenix was tonight. I should have taken the Phoenix out instead of my car. I really should get more familiar with it before tonight. I'd never raced in anything but Raiden before. I'd driven the RX-7 a few times but never raced it. It was well understood the only one who did crazy things in that car was Dom. While he would let me drive it every now and again, mostly when there was no other option, he'd never let me race it.

I pulled into the beach boardwalk that I'd taken to spending time at when I had to think and parked. I got out of the car, pulled on my sweater and went out to the water's edge. I sat on a rock and stared out at the Atlantic. It was a different ocean then the pacific. Colder for one thing. Different plant life. It was even a different color. You could pick up on it when you were used to looking at the other. It just reminded me how I still didn't belong.

You can take the girl outta Cali but you can't take Cali outta the girl. As I stared out at the water, wondering what was over the distant horizon something occurred to me.

I was ready to go home.

Miami was getting old. I was ready to have my team back. I was ready to race in my own circles. I was ready to work on cars in my own garage. See my friends. See Dom. I was ready. I'd learned just about all I was going to from Miami.

Or so I thought at the time.

I drove home slightly damp and smelling of salt water. When I arrived I parked the car and looked at the Skyline. I might be ready to go home but Kimi needed a bit of work before she'd be presentable. It was lookin like a car again, true. But it was a car without an engine.

The engine had pretty much been crushed beyond repair in the accident. The rad had been pushed back into the fan, the whole engine had been shifted back toward the passenger compartment. The frame bent, the subframe snapped. It was a mess. It was now a car with a straight frame and not much else. I'd had to gut the engine bay just like with Tej's. Only not like Tej's, this one wasn't going back in so easy. I had to replace the rad, the fan, the main wiring harness...A ton of other stuff on the driver's side of the car. That was the side that had sustained the most damage. The intercooler, being a front mount was toast, as were the turbos. Skyline parts are not easy to come by, and they are not cheap.

Brian had been a huge help with the car, beyond what I thought he would be. He really did know his Skylines and he wasn't busy very often so he spend a lot of his free time working on the car. This was one project I wasn't being too picky with the help on. Anyone who wanted to work on it, as long as they did quality work was more then welcome to go ahead and give us a hand. I wanted it done because I couldn't go home without it being done.

Brian had been busy while I was gone. He'd painted the newly repaired engine bay. It had to be done while the engine was out and after painting Tej's car I hadn't been looking forward to painting the Skyline. That was when Brian had decided to let me in on the fact he'd painted his own car himself. Granted the design wasn't very complicated, but it was a nice quality paint job. Suki was already working on drawing the warrior on the side out from what she could make out of what was left of him. Then we'd have to find someone to cut the graphics out of vinyl for us so we could put them back on. Putting them on was always Mia the perfectionist's job but I suppose we'll manage without her.

"It's coming along good." Rome said as he walked up behind me.

"Yeah, it's goin ok. I hope it all lines up when it's done. If I do all this work just to have it dog track like a sonabitch I'm not gonna be a happy girl."

"It seems pretty true to me." Rome answered, squatting onto his haunches about 20 feet in front of the car.

"Yeah, but we won't know till we drive behind it for sure."

"True dat. So, you're gonna race Tej's car tonight?"

"So he tells me. I'd really rather not. I don't like doing fast things with other people's rides."

Rome nodded. "Yeah, but it's not like he'll be racin it. Someone may as well."

"I guess, but why not someone he knows better? Someone who wouldn't have to be cautious with it?"

"You don't have to be. He won't expect you to be. You don't have any more chance of crashing it then you do of crashing your car. You worry too much."

I laughed. It was the first time I'd ever heard that one. I was worrying more here then I had at home but I was normally told to take some responsibility for myself for a change. I didn't spend much time worrying really. But then tell me who wouldn't worry about borrowing a 120,000 dollar car for the night and racing it at crazy speeds around town.

"Ok, I'll just pretend it's mine and do what I want."

"See, now that's the attitude you wanna have." Rome grinned.

"Yeah. I think I'll go call home before the main event." I told Rome and started for the door.

"You're leaving soon aren't you?" Rome asked from the door with more astuteness then I ever would have give him credit for. I turned to face him and he looked sad.

"Maybe. I'm ready to go back. I just have some stuff to tie up around here first. Why?"

"You seem different. Like you realized something important and I just guessed that it was that you were ready to go home."

"Why does that make you sad?" I know he thought he liked me but he really seemed like he'd gotten over that. I thought I caught him looking at Fiona a few times but I couldn't be sure.

"Because you're a good friend, and when you go you're taking Brian with you. I'm only here because'a homeboy. I don't know what I'll do when Brian leaves."

"Rome, these people are your friends too. I don't think they only keep you around because of Brian."

"No, but I only keep me around because of Brian."

"Tej will need you more then ever once Brian's not here anymore. You'll find your place. No sayin Brian won't realize he never really fit in with us in L.A. and come right back here after he makes his peace with Mia and the team."

"Naw, you ain't seen how Bri can be wit girls. He's been different ever since L.A. and it can only be because he really liked that Mia girl. He'd'a been all over all the potential that hangs around here if not."

"Yeah, but he fell for Mia under false pretenses and they might not hold true anymore."

"Or they might hold more true because now he really is Brian O'Connor, street racer. He's not just pretendin anymore. Since now he really is what he was pretending to be he'll fit in even better."

"That might be true and it might not. You could always come too. Brian might need someone at his back to save him from Vince." I laughed and Rome joined me.

"I might just take you up on that offer."

"The offer stands dude. You're more then welcome. I might need help moving all the cars I'm supposed to take with me anyway."

"I never thought of that! You just might need a driver with skills."

I nodded and headed for the door. "You think on it anyway and we'll see what's up when I go to leave." He just nodded and kept contemplating the Skyline. I headed out of the shop and down to the boat. I picked up the phone and dialed home.

I mean, if there's any evidence it's still home, it has to be that when I have big news I still have to call L.A. and tell them about it. They're my team and I still have to share my news with them. I can't get away from that no matter how well I started to fit into the team here. It was like when a cousin came to visit you for the summer.

They started to fit into your life, started to get to know your friends and you included them in stuff. Let them roll like they were part of your team.

But they always missed their own people and you always knew they didn't truly belong.

Then when they went home they were relieved to be with their own friends again no matter how well they'd fit in with yours and you were just as glad they were gone because you wanted to be back to your own routine.

And you knew, in the back of your head that you were scared they'd start to replace you or at least become just as important to your friends as you were. And in the back of their head was always the worry that their own friends might learn to get along without them or realize they were just as happy while they were gone.

I'd been gone about two months and it would be three before I got back. That worry that my team would learn to roll without me was getting louder and louder in my head. I'd never planned to run away forever and I'd learned a lot about me in the time I'd been gone. All I could do was hope that Dom had too. I hadn't called as much since the time I'd called and had to talk to Dom so I'd never had to talk to him on the phone again. I don't know if it was by some design of his or just luck but it hadn't happened.

When the phone was answered it was Leon on the other end. That was weird. He was ok with answering the phone now? Well it was more good then weird I guess.

"Hey Leon. How's it goin?" I asked, trying to sound cheerful. I'm sure he'd tell you that Letty and cheerful are two words that don't belong in the same sentence.

He sighed. "Fine I guess." Ok, he was closer to the phone then anyone else and he picked it up off instinct then. He's definitely not better.

"I see. Anything new happen lately?"

"No." He sighed again. Either he liked the girl better then the team all thought or he's really too attached to his car. I really don't know which. But he's gotta get over it. As far as he knows his car is gone for good. It's not healthy to be this depressed over it this long.

"Leon?"

"Yeah?"

"This has gotta stop."

"What does?" He asked petulantly like a spoiled child.

"This 'woe is me' shit over that car. Yeah, it was a really nice car. Yeah, you really really loved it. Yeah, it sucks that it's gone. But face it boy, whether the cops had crushed it or not you were never driving it again. It was clearly too wrecked for the road."

"How do you know they didn't crush it because it was a street racing car?" Leon whined.

"Because they'd just impound it then either sell it to a collector to pay your fine or deport it back to Japan. They wouldn't crush it for that. You're lucky to be alive, no girl is worth doing this to yourself over, especially not if she was a cheating ho, and you'll own another car."

"I don't want another car."

"You sound like a spoiled child and it doesn't suit you Leon. You could buy a 240sx and then have Jesse help you swap a Skyline RB26DETT into it you know."

"Way to be practical Let." Leon laughed, I think I got through to him. "When did you turn into miss practical it's just a car girl? Don't think I don't know you'd marry your damn car too if it was an option."

"Yeah, but if I wrecked it and I couldn't fix it I'd buy a new one and move on. I mean, it might take me a while to find just the right one but I'd find one."

"I got no money to buy anything." Leon admitted, sounding reluctant to make that confession. So that's why he's so bummed. "It took all my money to pay the fine, and I still gotta go to court in a month's time to see if I'm gonna get jail time or community service or anything over it. I mean, if I had the car I couldn't even afford to get it fixed anyway."

"You could ask Dom if..." Leon cut me off.

"I'm not asking him," he dropped his voice to barely above a whisper, "for any of that money. Are you crazy? He won't touch it for anything."

"It's not just his Leon. We all had to slave for it and so it's not just his decision. You on a street racing team. You need a car." I spoke in my no arguments tone that had been known to win me my way from Dom a few times.

"I know that Letty but he's the Big Dawg. I'm not askin."

"He's selfish to not have offered." I was getting mad at Dom again. It's not fair really. I bet he just never thought that Leon would be ashamed to ask him for some of the money. We'd stashed some of it in accounts that were hidden. Dom knew all the specifics. All I knew was how I'd get the money if I needed it. Like I already said, spending it is distasteful to me too but I'd do it if I had to. And I'd consider it a necessity to keep Leon out of jail and in a street car. He is a racer on a street racing team. He's also the only one who really knows how to work all the scanning equipment.

Equipment that was, despite being quite illegal, still in the car. I guess that's what happens when the FBI gets your car out of impound for you. They even get the illegal stuff back too. I'm liking Brian's father even though I've never met him.

But anyway, it's not that Dom wouldn't want to help Leon out with his new car, he'd just think that when Leon was good and ready for a new car he'd come and ask Dom about it. It would never occur to Dom that Leon wouldn't ask. But it should because Leon's as proud as Vince, who would never do anything that would amount to, in his mind, begging for money.

"I don't think he's selfish Lett. He's worried I'll ask for another Skyline." Leon laughed.

"I'll talk to him for you Leo. And if you want another Skyline then you should have one and I'll find a way to get you one." Big words for a girl on the other side of the country.

"Naw LD, don't worry bout it. I'll find a way to get a new car when I'm ready for one. I need more time. Just a car or not I was that attached to it."

Him needin more time was just fine with me. I needed more time to give him back his girl anyway.

"Ok, but if you don't have a new ride by the time I get back I'm picken you one out myself and buyin it too."

"Yeah, right. Where will ya get the money girl?"

"I'm makin pimpin money here racin baby boy. Yo girl'll hook you _up_!"

That made him really laugh. I was just bein silly and I think he got it.

"When you comin home girl? Miss you almost as much as that damn car." Leon mumbled. I bet he's blushing.

It occurs to me that there's a skank back home with my name all over her what will be bruised and broken body. Leon's kinda like me, tough on the outside but soft inside. He just doesn't like to let on. I'ma school puta on a few things for him. Thing one is don't mess with Letty's familia.

"Soon. I don't know when just yet but soon. Like in a month or so I figure. I'm sorta on contract for a few more races here then I'm headed home. Keep that to yoself for now though, k?"

"Yeah. So, I bet you wanted to talk to someone till you decided you had to take me down a few over my whining didn't ya?"

"Yeah, just called to chat really. I gotta race in a new car tonight myself and I'm not lookin forward to it."

"Why you gotta race in a new car? Don't tell me you got car trouble too?"

"Naw. Did Vince tell ya'll about the car I had to build for my boss?"

"Yeah."

"Well he doesn't race anymore and I finally got that car done. But since he doesn't race and he wants to know how the car works he's making me race it for him."

"Sounds like fun."

"Maybe to you." I sighed. "I've never raced anything but the Silvia before."

"Ah. Well, you'll do great girl. No worries. Dom taught you everything he knows. I know you'll do great."

"Thanks. Say, Vince around?"

"Yeah, one sec." Leon muffled the phone. "VINCE!"

"WHA?" I heard Vince yell back.

"PHONE!" Vince picked up elsewhere in the house.

"'Lo?"

"Hey V."

"Hey Let. What's up?"

"I finished the car."

"How'd it turn out?"

"Good. I'm racin it tonight."

"You get to race an NSX?" Vince sounded jealous.

"Yeah. I'm not thrilled 'bout runnin someone else's car worth 100 g's."

"I would be. Damn, if he asked you to run it then it's all on him. You just get to drive the shit outta it. It's not even your car, you can drive the bag off it and not worry about what you're doing to it."

"I never thought of it like that Vince. You're right. I'll just drive the shit out of it and let the rest work itself out."

"Yeah, for sure. Other people's cars are the best to drive. You don't have to put new tires on them or worry about what you're doin to the engine."

"Say V?"

"Yeah?"

"I tried to cheer Leon out of his mood, but I need a favor from you."

"Shoot."

"Don't, no matter how better he gets, or how much he likes whatever he sees, let him buy another car. I don't want to show up with this damn thing and find out he's just as attached to some new car as he was to this one."

"Fat chance of that happening Let."

"Maybe, but just make sure no matter what he looks at you find some reason why he can't have it. I mean, that's if Dom ever pulls his head out of his own ass and figures out that he has to give Leon the money to buy a new car. I mean, not that I want you to point it out now because it's against my purposes but why the hell didn't Dom let Leon know he'd give him the money to get his car fixed or replaced?"

"I guess we all just assumed that Leon knew we'd take care of it."

"Don't assume. He thinks he can't have a new car because it took all his money to pay off his fines."

"Well shit, that ain't true. We'd make sure he got a new car. How else can he go to races and watch for cops?"

"Vince, if you ever said something that didn't have some element of selfishness in it I'd die of shock." I laughed so he'd know I was joking.

"Good luck tonight Let. I know you got a win in you in that kinda car." Vince waited a moment after he said it. "You dead yet?"

"Naw coyote, but I do gotta go. I gotta get ready and eat before 11 and its 9 now."

"K girl. Talk to you later."

"Yeah, later." I hung up and got up. I got changed out of my garage clothes into a pair of leather jeans and a tank top. I tied my hair up into a ponytail for practicality and grabbed a quick sandwich.

Then I headed up to the garage to make sure Tej's car was ready to roll. I double checked all the NOS fittings and the tank levels. I'd never had a chance to trial run the NOS. I guess races tonight will be its trial run.

You shouldn't wash a fresh paint job for two weeks. And no wax for 6. But I couldn't take the car to races all dusty like it was. I decided I'd have to go ahead and wash it. I figured if I used a new sheepskin mitt and a new chamois to dry it I should be ok. It was just dusty and not really dirty.

Tej found me when I was drying it off after it was all washed. Not a swirl mark in sight thankfully.

"You ready to do this?" Tej asked.

"Yep." I answered.

"Ok, let's get it on." Tej told me and walked away, got in his truck and started it up. He made a gesture for me to follow and headed out onto the road.


	36. In His Place

AN: Sorry for the long wait everyone but I had to give my computer into the service depot and they took like two weeks to fix it plus school and work have been hairy. And I've had my internet taken away at school and I haven't had time to get on the internet at all. GreenGlow, we're going to have to agree to disagree on the ocean thing because I live on an island in the middle of the Atlantic and that bitch is cold. As a matter of fact I'm sitting in my car parked at the shore right now writing on my laptop. And since we get ice from December till like April or May all around us and in all our harbours and British Columbia which is on the other coast of my country on the Pacific never gets ice and has a year round shipping port as a result at least in Canada the Pacific is quite a bit warmer then the Atlantic. I doubt it makes much difference either way in the Tropics but in the north it makes quite a bit of difference. The Pacific is warmer. They don't have to pull their boats on the west coast but on the east where I am we have to dry dock them all for the winter because if we left them in they'd get frozen in the ice. PS I don't know Spanish so if it's wrong it's cause the online thingie didn't tell me right. I got the swearing on lock but the real stuff is harder.

Chapter 36 – In His Place

I followed Tej's big Dodge Ram 4X4 down the highway. We arrived in the neighbourhood we raced in and at each street that had to be blocked off a crew of people would jump out of the truck and put up road closed signs. It all looked very official. It was pissing me off to stop so much though.

I've driven a lot of cars in my day. I've driven all the team's cars at one point or another, I've driven my own for years, and of course there was the infamous Civic. But none of those cars prepared me for the feel of that Acura flying down the highway.

The car itself wasn't so spectacular in stock form. It's a pretty nice, pretty fast car, don't get me wrong, but it's not a spectacular car straight from Acura. The way I'd built it however was downright inspiring. I was getting to the point that my car or not I didn't much care anymore. I was ready to open it up and just go. I was actually getting frustrated keeping it to a reasonable speed behind Tej. Not to mention how I felt when we got to the area and started all the starting and stopping.

I can't find the words to explain to the uninitiated what it feels like to go flying down an open road in a really fast car that handles like it's gliding on rails and sounds like an angry thunder god when you have it wide open. You're well planted on the ground, in my case via a set of very sticky Toyo tires, but it feels like you're flying. I use to have this bumper sticker on the Nissan that said 'I'm not driving too fast, I'm flying low.' In some places in California where the road curves close to the shoreline the feeling is even more intense because it even feels like you're driving right into the clouds. Sometimes I turn the radio off and just listen to my car rev with the windows open and feel like I'm so high in the clouds none of the shit in my life can touch me.

Dom and all his shit. All the lies, the yelling, the screaming, the cheating, all of it is down below and I'm flying above it all in my own world where none of it matters. Of course like every other mental trick to run away from your problems I always end up crash landed back on earth eventually but more often then not some of the freedom stays and none of the shit that seemed so important and so terrible is all that important anymore when I land. And I don't need to be in some ten second race for that to happen. I just need me and my car. I guess, instead of escaping by yelling or taking it out on other people I just take off and take it out on the road in my car.

That's the difference between Dom and me. Dom needs that rush from the crowd, the people cheering, the girls wanting to get on him just because he's the fastest at driving a car in a straight line down some street for ten seconds. All I need is a road, a fast car and some time alone. I think of the two of us I'm the luckier one. Dom'd be a lot better off if he could just remember what it's like to simply _drive_. Drive fast because you don't know what you'll do if you don't, because you love the speed, because you love your car. Because you can get that same rush just off the speed, not the competition. Not because some stupid vato or skanky bitch is going to think you're a big man for a few hours after a ten second car race.

If he could just go for a drive to take his bad moods out in private instead of taking them out on me and the team life would be better for everyone concerned too. Dom gets upset or angry and then he tries to make everyone else upset and miserable right along with him with his bad moods.

Shit, someone slap me I sound like a sissy bitch! Of course for the five weeks that I'd been working on Tej's car I really hadn't had time to race or even go to races. I really hadn't even had time to go for drives. I'd missed it. Racing is a big part of my life. I guess I'm like a junky. When you take away my drug of choice I start to get all sentimental an shit about it. Good thing I'm gonna get a hit tonight because if I get any sappier I'm gonna have to kill myself.

I checked my rear view and saw Brian in his Skyline just behind me. I assume Rome and Fiona are back there too. Not to mention Suki and Jimmy. If I win I'll be their queen. If I loose they'll all be around to see me fall. This is one of those make or break moments that define a situation and set the tone for how things will go on. They knew I was good, and they couldn't take that away from me. I'd beaten Rome. I'd beaten Suki. I was just as good with the cars as any of them. But if I lost in the car that was my creation it was like it would take away from all the success I'd had up till now.

We rolled up on races and parked the cars. I was surrounded by people who wanted to stare at the car pretty much right away.

"Back up, back up! Give the girl some room!" Tej called out, marshalling the crowd. "Keep your hands off the car boy!" Tej slapped the hand of some kid who went to touch the hood away. "You can all look your fill while the car is racin three of your asses down the street. I need two volunteers with three grand lose!"

"Um Tej?" I asked, knowing his math did not work out. Me plus two equalled three, not four.

"Yeah?" Tej smirked at me and it struck fear in me. Just how he did it. It was so evil. I knew I wasn't going to like the answers.

"You said I was racing three more people."

"Yeah."

"Why do you only need two volunteers?"

"Oh," Tej's head nodded back in a confident little gesture. "I got your forth." The smirk did not go away.

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"Bullit."

"Aw hell no! I'm not racin Chumpy."

"Why? You scared he'll win?"

"Hell no I'm not scared he'll win. I just don't want to race him."

"Maybe he'll earn the right to be called something other then Chumpy." I just glared back with my Letty-the-badass-don't-mess-with-me look in place. The look that sent my guys cowering for cover before I really let lose on them. I don't think it'll be working on Tej. He just kept right on smirking. "Listen, I wanna know how fast that car is and the only thing that's gonna make you have to push it is putting it up against the Skyline. So Brian's in, you're racing him." I went to protest. To tell him hell no actually. No one makes me do what I don't want to do. "It's not an optional activity." He continued before I could make my protest.

"Tej, she's right bro, I don't want to race Reina." Brian broke in and added his own opinion with a nervous glance at me. He was likely scared of getting his ass kicked if he won.

"Too bad. Line up. I'm gonna find two and three." Tej walked off into the crowd.

"Well, looks like this is it Brian. We're gonna know who's faster after tonight."

"I'd rather not know." Brian grimaced.

"Hell Chumpy, you already do! You couldn't beat Dom and you can't beat me." I punched his shoulder and grinned. I hate to see Brian down.

"We'll see about that Letty." Brian's 'wouldn't you like to know' smirk was firmly in place as he went to his car and backed it up. I backed up mine and followed him to the line. It looked like he was gonna take my right hand spot so I zipped up around him on the inside. As my driver's window was level with his front fender I got a blast of something in my window from inside his wheel well. It happened a few more times and I finally figured out what it was. He was purging his NOS lines and instead of just venting the gas out under the hood or whatever he was spraying it out the wells like the car was snorting. Too bad the front of it wasn't painted like a dragon.

We both squealed to a stop on the line.

"Damn Brian, I'm glad I had my windows up. Who set your purge valves up like that?"

"Jimmy." Brian smiled wolfishly as the lines purged again and blew up the skirt of a skank who'd come up to his car for a closer look.

"Oh Brian, it's always about a chick isn't it."

"No, it's about an image." Brian turned serious. "I'm something to these people, Letty. Tej made me and I do things his way. He made sure I had races when I didn't have a dime. He helped me finish the car and he made it so I got invited places and got races to run just based off who I am. But we have what he calls a relationship of mutual respect. He did all that for me and in return I race when he tells me, I share my winnings and I keep up the image he made for me."

"You're just sayin that cause you don't want me to kick your ass into next Tuesday." I laughed to try and bring the sad look off of Brian's face. "Playboy."

"Aiight, I get a bit of a kick out of all the attention." Brian grinned. "But it's all a big act. For real."

I looked past Brian as Suki stopped on the line. Third down. Who was the fourth gonna be? I got out of my car to wait and Brian did the same thing.

"Who's he gonna get for 4?"

"Wish I knew." Brian answered and looked around. "Could be anyone."

"Who's this good?"

"I'm not sure."

Brian had more to say but he was cut off by the arrival of an orange RX-7 on the line. As the door of the new car opened Brian sighed and crossed his arms. "Here we go."

"Hey Tej, ese! I've been workin on my car homes, it's all fixed up and I'm ready to race!"

"Welcome back man. I hope that car is as ready as you think cause this ain't gonna be no Sunday drive."

"You got me up against two skirts man! How hard do you think I'll have to work?"

The abrasive Latin man laughed uproariously at his own joke and sneered my way.

"I hope you don't pussy out like you did last time." Suki said with a rude gesture toward the new man. He returned the favour and turned to me.

"Mami, after I beat you in the streets maybe you want me to show you a real man between the sheets ay?"

I turned to look at Brian. "Is he talking to me?" I cocked one eyebrow. He could not be talking to me. He had to be talking to Suki.

Brian looked from him to me. "Yeah, he's talkin to you." Brian did not look happy to be telling me that.

"I know he ain't talking to me like that." I started his way. No way was he making comments to me like that and walking away to gloat about it later. My hands clutched into fists involuntarily at my sides.

"It won't do any good Lett. He'll still be that exact same way tomorrow." Brian hissed as he followed me toward the idiot who thought he was the world's worst hombre.

"No, he'll have an icepack on his nuts tomorrow." I tossed back over my shoulder as I sauntered up to this new threat to my reputation. Brian shoulda known I couldn't just let him get away with talking to me like that. The whole crowd would think I was some weak ass bitch who couldn't stand up for herself.

"Hola ese. ¿Usted desea esto?" Do you want this, want me, I asked him as I came to a stop in front of him with my chest slightly trust out and consciously licked my lower lip with the tip of my tongue. He watched the motion then answered me.

"Si mami." He leered. The look on his face was totally priceless. He thought he was winning. He thought that his attitude had actually worked on a real girl. I guess he's just deluded or some shit.

"¿Cuál es su nombre?" I stood with a hand on my hip and my head cocked to the side, fighting to keep my face schooled into a non-violent expression. I didn't want him to know just how close to getting the smug look beaten off his face he was.

"It's Julian but people call me Orange Julius. Or just Jul."

"Well, Julian," I used the full form of his name just to emphasize the fact that I was not ok with him. Not even close. "I don't like your tone when you talk to me, or about Suki. I bet I wouldn't like your tone when you talked about any woman though would I?" I didn't give him a chance to answer. "Because you've been beaten down by one of us one too many times and since you have some male issue with it and what it does to your ego you try to trash talk us into losing before we ever step on the street. Not tonight my friend."

"You think you can beat me perra?"

Oh no he didn't just call me a bitch. "I was gonna settle my score with you on the blacktop but you just ended that easier option with that dirty ass mouth, chi-chi carbon." I guess when I called him an asshole he got really mad. He stood up off his car with his eyes flashing blue murder.

"What you gonna do about it skirt?" He smirked at me and it was the last straw.

"Maybe this?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and then before I could loose my nerve over thinking what Tej was gonna do to me for it I decked him in the nose.

"You bitch!" He screamed as he held his now gushing blood nose.

"And then because you're still running that filthy mouth one of these." I took hold of his shoulders and drove my knee into his crotch as hard as I could. With a scream he hit the ground holding his crotch and moaning. The crowd went wild, cheering and screaming. Most of the girls were on my side, cheering me on and most of the guys were booing. I understand. It's always a low blow to go for the nuts. I know that. But that guy had it coming for how he talked to me and for how he talked to girls in general. "Think on that next time you decide girls can't race or fight. Chinga tu madre!" I flipped him off as I told him off.

He was still in too much pain to answer. He just looked up at me from were he was squirming on the ground, his eyes bugged out and his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He looked so small and pathetic down there, so weak. He was robbed of his male brazenness and it made him look like a little boy. He _was_ sad and pathetic and his attitude toward women was just an outward symptom of a bigger issue. Brian was right. Come tomorrow I'd just be another bitch who made him look stupid. He'd likely hate women even more. But if he kept his mouth shut next time it'd all be worth it. If he even slightly figured out that not every woman wanted to cater to his whims and listen to his shit, and maybe even got a clue there were girls who could kick his mother fucken ass I'd be satisfied.

Tej came running up. "What are you doin?" He looked really angry.

"Shutting his loud, annoying, fucken mouth." I answered, not willing to explain myself to him for doing what I did. This time it wasn't about some girl who ran her mouth and pissed me off. It wasn't about me not being able to control my temper. It was about that asshole thinking he had the right to treat another human being like they were less worthy because they didn't have a dick. I hate that attitude. I hate the fact that two race skanks are at this very moment helping him to his feet and fawning over him. "You two seriously need to get some self respect and lose his annoying ass!" I called after them as they helped Julian to his car.

"How's he supposed to race with ice on his nuts?" Tej grumbled, still shooting me death glares.

"I don't know. If his nuts are too sore to let him use the peddles find somebody else. I'm not takin his shit. He talked trash about me, about Suki."

"You don't even like Suki!" Tej threw up his hands in agitation, not understanding my logic.

"Who says I don't. We came to something of an understanding. Besides it coulda been any other girl. What if he was calling Fiona skirt and treating her bad cause she's not a guy?"

"He's always been that way Letty. You nailin him where the sun don't shine isn't gonna change that."

"Maybe not, but I bet it makes him think twice bout running that mouth out loud next time. He always gets away with his shit because most girls just roll their eyes and walk away, or think it's flattering in some way to have him all over them like he is right? Well it's time he learned that there are girls out there who can take care of themselves and won't just put up with his bad attitude because it's 'the nice thing' to do."

"Yeah, yeah, but what am I supposed to do about a forth?" Tej held my gaze steadily.

"Find someone else." I gazed back, refusing to look away.

"Tej, man what up brotha!" Another person I didn't know walked up to Tej and they shook hands.

"Nothin Hakim, just lookin for a fourth."

"To race who?"

"Bullit, Suki, and my new girl here, Letty."

"Count me in Bro. I finally got the night of work and I was hoping to get a race in."

I looked from Tej to the new man, Hakim, wondering if he was as good as the man I'd taken out of commission.

"That's what I'm talkin 'bout!" Tej seemed very pleased. "I had Julius in but Letty here took care of him when he pulled his same shit with her. But you're even better for what I had in mind."

Hakim just smiled. "What's he drive?" I asked Tej.

"Mitsubishi 3000GT."

"Twin turbo?" I questioned further.

"Twin turbo." Hakim confirmed with a grin. "Nice to meet you, Letty, was it?"

"Yeah, Letty. I take you to be Hakim?"

"That's me. What are you runnin?"

"Tej's newly restored NSX." He looked shocked and I smirked.

"Who rebuilt that thing?"

"I did." I smiled at the shocked look on his face. And Tej had thought that the race was going to be between me'n Brian. The night just got more interesting by half.

"Ok, you two can get better acquainted after we race." Tej put an end to our conversation and turned to the track. "Get your car to the line man, and you get in yours girl. We got a race to run."

"Yes sir." I answered sarcastically and turned to move toward the Acura.

"Who'd he get?" Brian questioned me as I started to slide into the car.

"Some dude in a Mitsubishi named-" Brian cut me off.

"Hakim."

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Because he's the only one in a Mitsubishi around here that's good enough to run in this group. He's the only one who's ever beaten me." Brian caught my shocked look. "But not by much." He was quick to add.

"I see. So I guess this race is between me'n him huh?" I teased, smirking smugly.

"Not a chance." Brian grinned.

"Listen up!" Tej called. We stopped talking to each other and looked up at Tej. "Tonight I got somethin special on the go for ya'll. As many of you know I had a wreck in my Acura a few years ago and I never raced since. And I never fixed the car. But I got a new mechanic recently and to find out just how good she was, if she was as good as she said I set her to fixin that Acura. And tonight it's back on the black for the first time in two years." The assembled crowd went crazy jumping and cheering.

"And to make it even better, you are about to see Letty, a new racer on our streets who's beaten everything we've thrown at her take that Acura up against our very own hometown unbeatable hero Brian in his 99 Skyline, my girl Suki and last but far from least Hakim and his super fast Mitsubishi 3000GT."

If I thought the crowd was loud when they thought they were gonna see me race Brian it was nothing to how crazy then went when we threw Hakim into the mix. I got a quick second to ask Brian what was up with them being so insane over Hakim and Brian told me it was because he was seriously good but he always got stuck working double shifts over the whole evening and graveyard shift when there was racing going on. No one ever got to see him run and they knew how fast shit was when Brian faced Hakim.

With a glance at each other we both slid into our cars. I glanced over to my left. I looked past Brian, who due to the backwards setup of his car was sitting right beside me, over to where Suki was snarling at her LCD display past her to where Hakim was sitting in his car with a gansta lean talking to people on the sidelines.

As much as I tried to tell myself it was just another race I couldn't quite convince myself of that fact. It wasn't just another race for me. I was out of my typical league. I raced quite a few good racers since I'd gotten into Miami. But no one really good. No one in Dom's league. Until tonight that is. Tonight I knew I was up against people that could give Dom a run for his money and I was nervous. I wasn't sure I was this good.

I'll give Brian credit. He's gotten good since he got here. When he slides into his car and turns on his NOS all the little insecurities I saw in him when we were just standing around talking disappear. He becomes just as confident and sure of himself behind the wheel as Dom. He wouldn't be like that if he wasn't good at what he does. And it was obvious from both attitude and crowd reaction that Hakim had reason to be confident too.

It's obvious that Hakim is just as confident as Brian. Not only that but the crowd's reaction to him tells me that they're use to getting a good show when he shows up and hits the road.

"Ok people listen up. The course is the same as you're use to. First one back takes it all. And I promise there won't be any surprises with the bridge this time." Tej winked at me. He winked. He's a hard man to figure you know that? He's mostly all smug and shit with me but every once in a while he does stuff that's like he's not as hard ass as he lets on. "But that's not to say you don't have to watch out for other surprises." Tej nodded to one of the girls on the side of the course and she walked out onto the road and stood on the line between Brian and Suki's cars.

She raised her arms. We all revved our engines. She dropped her arms with a flourish and we were off. I shot out ahead of Brian right from the line but Hakim got in front of me. Suki was bringing up the rear. Her car, good as Jimmy had built it, did not have the balls to be racing in the assembled crowd but Suki was doing her damnedest to keep up.

I found myself running at Hakim's bumper as he did his best to anticipate what I was going to do next and managed to every time I went to pass him. Much as I admired him for being seriously good he was also seriously pissing me off.

We made the first turn and Suki went wide, throwing her even farther off the pace. She fell back to a few lengths behind Brian. I took the first turn almost too tight because I was a hair away from racing on the sidewalk but it did have one advantage. Hakim in no way anticipated me nearly jumping the curb and it gave me an opening to nip up around him on the inside. An opening which you can be damn sure I took.

He wasn't pleased and I wish I could tell you I got in front of him but I didn't. We ran neck and neck, side by side as Brian looked for a way around us. He tried to the left and then when that failed to the right. He went for the space between us but Hakim moved closer to me. We were going 110 and the second corner loomed.

We took it in unison and thankfully both our cars drifted around the corner in unison or we would have crashed. Brian was still not far behind us. He tried to zip up on the outside again but I cut him off neatly. I'm having enough trouble keeping side by side with Hakim. I do not need that 1000 horsepower Skyline mocking me with it's cute little round tail lights up in front.

As we levelled off after the corner I saw something that managed to strike real fear in me. There was a car parked in the middle of the road. It was more in Hakim's way then mine but there was no mistaking it was placed there on purpose. This was Tej's surprise for this test. I only had to dodge a bit to the right but Hakim had to go well out of his way to the left to get around the car. I used that to my advantage to get up in the lead.

It was good to be in the front with no one's flashing tails letting me know I was losing. However I now had two very irate males in very fast cars trying to pass me. I couldn't dodge in front of them both at the same time so I did the only thing I could think of to do to get some breathing room. I hit NOS one and started to pray to a god that I'd forgotten all about quite some time ago that I didn't blow myself, the car, or both up with the untested NOS system.

The car bucked with the raw power and shot forward. I got a good amount of distance on both the guys who'd been pushing up on me. I did make one critical mistake however. The third corner was a lot closer then I'd remembered.

It's gonna be some kinda fun to take that corner at 130 cause that's as slow as I'm gonna be able to get this down to before that corner's here. I moved the car well to the inside of the street to give me lots of room to drift the corner before I hit a building on the outside. I threw the wheel and the car flew sideways around the corner, squealing and smoking and flying toward the brick warehouse on the corner. I straightened it out just before I would have been up on the sidewalk. I started to pick speed back up after I levelled out and I watched Brian and Hakim take the corner together.

Brian was on the outside and as he flew around the corner he slid too wide in his drift and ended up on the sidewalk. He didn't hit the building but he did have to slow down to get down off the sidewalk. Hakim took advantage of the situation and came flying up at me. The final corner was right ahead of me. I moved to the inside again and kept pushing the gas. I was not losing.

I'm not losing, I'm not losing. I kept chanting it in my head as I squealed around the final corner and watched Hakim do the same in my rearview mirror. As soon as I levelled out I hit NOS 2 and flew ahead. Hakim did the same and flew up at the back of the car. He must have misjudged the distance because his front bumper kissed my rear and gave me a bit of a jolt. I think both of us were a bit shocked he did that which gave Brian the opening he needed to hit his NOS and fly up the outside of us and get half a car in front of me.

The two of us set to keeping Hakim behind us and battling for first between ourselves. I dodged another parked car as Brian did the same. When we both swerved back into the center of the road I hit the NOS again. I could see the squealing fans from the point on the course I'd reached and I wasn't losing. Not this time. I needed the win.

Hell, I needed the money. Leon's car was an expensive bitch to fix and I was getting low. I was so determined to do it all on my own with the money I'd won and not touch 'the bank' money.

I'd caught Brian by surprise with the extra burst of speed and I got in front of him. He hit his third shot of NOS in the same race and started to catch me again but it wasn't enough. I flashed over the line half a car in front of him and he was in turn about a quarter car in front of Hakim. Suki crossed a few seconds after the three of us but she had a triumphant look on her face for even having finished so soon after three such worthy cars.

As soon as I got out of my car on legs made shaky by the left over adrenaline in my veins I was caught up by the crowd and pushed forward threw them toward the center. The pushed me into a make shift winner's circle where Tej and Rome waited with Fiona and Jimmy.

"Here you go girl. Here's what you won. I got 12 stacked for my girl here!" Tej called and the crowd went wild. He handed my money and I just looked at it. It was me getting handed 12 grand here. Not Dom, me. I pulled about a grand off the top of the stack and handed it to Tej. He looked at it in surprise.

"Mutual trust and respect, right?" I asked with an eyebrow cocked.

"You're alright Letty. And the best racer we've ever had, I mean that."

"Thanks, but it was mostly the car." Where did the modestly come from? Well the car was a big part of it, and pure dumb luck was another part. Not to mention the fact I'd just been in a good place for dodging parked cars.

"Parked cars Tej? You know it's a sin to hit a parked car right? They's like innocent victims." He laughed at me.

"I couldn't just send the three of you guys out for a boring old race. You're all too good for that. Oh, and I'll make sure you get a copy of the tape."

"Tape? Of what?"

"The race. I had a few people up on the roofs along the course. We'll be able to put together a pretty good video of the race when we edit what they shot onto one video stream."

"You gotta be kidden me!" I laughed.

"Nope. Everyone can see your win. Hell, I should sell the shit like those underground racing tapes. People'd pay for this shit." He chuckled. "Go talk to your public girl. It's you they're here to see tonight!" With that Tej walked away and Brian walked up to me.

People want to see me. It's me they're calling out to, looking up to. That's a heady thing.

"Wow Lett. You're even better then I knew you were." Brian really looked shocked.

"And talk about improvement Chumpy. I mean, you came second and you weren't that far off. I mean, you weren't close, but not too far." I teased and Brian grinned.

"Dude, I almost had you!" I laughed.

"Almost had me? Almost had me? Ya never had me! You never had your car. It don't matter whether you win by an inch or a mile. Winnings winning." We both broke down into uproarious laughter with that. It was good to remember the good times. Hakim walked up and gave us a look like he thought we might be mildly crazy. He wasn't far off of course.

"Well, the two of you got lucky with those cars in all the right places eh?" If he hadn't been obviously joking I woulda been throwing my second punch of the night.

"Yeah, but if you get another night off before I leave I'll give you a chance to make some of your money back." I grinned as Hakim and I bumped closed fists in a gesture of mutual respect. He would have beaten Brian if he hadn't fallen back when he dodged that car.

"I don't know, will Bullit be racin again too?" Hakim gave Brian a speculative glance. "You got better since you been here man. I had you easy last time, but I couldn't keep up wit you this time. Course Jimmy's had more time with the Skyline since then."

"I'll take you in my Evo if you want dude. I let you win last time." Brian smiled his most charming smile and Hakim laughed.

"The two of you are insane, you deserve each other."

I linked an arm with Brian's. "That's how we see it too." I smirked.

"That how it is?" Hakim had clearly taken me the wrong way.

"Naw, we just friends. Well, we're friends as long as Brian keeps in his place and keeps loosing." Hakim looked me up and down.

"In that case, what you doin tonight after races?"

"She's got plans wit me." Rome came up behind me and put an arm around my shoulders. I looked up at him in surprise but didn't say anything. I was curious where this was goin. Rome gave me a look that clearly said to go along with it.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that was tonight. Sorry." I smiled apologetically at Hakim who shrugged, said good night and walked away. "What was that about?" I questioned Rome.

"Nothin. You just don't wanna get mixed up with him. He's as fast with girls as he is with his car."

"I think I proved I can take carea myself with Julian didn't I?"

"Yeah, but unlike Orange Julius Hakim is charming."

"He was a'ight." I looked around at the people who were starting to organize another race. "What do you two say we watch this next race and then go party huh?"

"Hell yeah!" Brian grinned.

"That sounds ok." Rome agreed.

"Can we ask Tej, Fi and Suki though?" Brian asked.

"Sure, the more the merrier." I agreed and about half an hour later I found myself with my group of new friends getting loaded at a trendy night spot we'd reached in Tej's quad cab Dodge.


	37. Homeward Bound

AN: I'm sorry this took so long. I just got no excuse other then being busy and not making time to write. So sorry again. I'm actually pretty proud of this chapter and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I enjoyed writing it to share with you. So please enjoy and if you wouldn't mind I'd appreciate it so much if you'd take a moment of your time (And trust me, no one knows how valuable time is better then me) and leave me a review of your honest opinions. Always, Tempest.

Chapter 38 – Homeward Bound

"To Letty!" Brian called as he held up his Corona, million watt smile flashing across his face. He was more or less begging me not to kick _his_ ass for drawing attention to _mine_ yet again. The crowd returned his call loudly and I decided to play along. I gave a playful bow and then took a big swig of my own Corona.

"So what now?" Rome leaned down and asked me as we watched the rest of the crowd from races make drunken fools of themselves out on the dance floor. It looked like fun.

"I dunno. You wanna dance?"

"Sure, but that's not what I meant. I mean, now that the Acura is done, and works pretty much perfect, what now for you? What's left?" Rome's eyes had this deep look to them, like he really wanted to know. He was hinting at when I was going home, I was fairly sure of it.

"Well, I still go the Skyline to finish. Can't go home without Kimi."

"Kimi?"

"Leon named his car. She's his girlfriend cause god knows he can't keep a real woman for more then 24 hours." We both laughed at that.

"And when the Skyline's done, what then? You gonna stay here for awhile and work or are you heading home?"

"I dunno." I shrugged. I really didn't. I was ready to go home, but I was ready to stay here too. It was fun to just do me here. Fun to win. Fun to not be a trophy but to be the winner. Really fun to just work in a garage, not run one. I never signed on to manage DT, I signed on to work for Dom but somehow I ended up running the place, but always behind Dom, so only the boys gave me any credit for it.

"You know you could have a good life here. You'n Bri both."

I knew what he was trying to tell me. If I wanted to give up Dominic I could stay here and be with him. Things were going too far too fast here. Rome's a really nice guy and I felt really bad that he picked me to be the first girl he got serious over in a long time. Even if I wanted to give someone new a try I'd still have to go home and end things with Dom in person. And I don't know even if I did that if I'd ever pick Miami to live in over L.A. L.A. can be a real bitch, but she's my home town.

No matter where you go and where you live, no matter what you do there or how good things are while you're there, most people yearn to go home again, back to their roots, where they came from. I was no different. I miss the clear blue water of the pacific. I miss the way all our neighbours in Echo Park are like family. I miss my boys, I miss Mia. Much as I'm enjoying Miami it's still not home, and if it was ever gonna feel like home it would have by now.

"I know that, but I have unfinished business back home. I gotta clear it up before I make any decisions, but to be totally honest I don't see myself here long term. I'm an L.A. girl."

"I think you owe it to yourself to give us a chance." Rome looked earnest while he made this declaration. "I mean, I'd never hurt you like he has."

"I owe it to myself and to him to go home and see where we stand before I make any other decisions. This trip was always about growing up and finding myself. I know I grew up, I know I learned things about myself I didn't know. Now to finish the journey I have to go back again."

"I understand I guess, but I want you to know that if he hurts you at all, I'll take care of it for you." I laughed at the bloodthirsty look in his eyes.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"You wanna dance?"

"Sure."

I allowed Rome to lead me out on the floor and we danced through a few songs. I don't feel proud of it but you know I really enjoy the fact I could have him if I wanted him. For once it's me who could throw the other males I could have into Dom's face if I was so inclined, but I guess no matter how very vindictive I am I'm not made that way. I'd rather go home with my conscience clear.

xox

I woke up the next day with a mild hangover and a craving for a greasy breakfast. I walked out through the boat only to find Fiona and Rome still passed out on the couch and floor respectively and Brian sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands.

"Mornin." I said as I walked up to the coffee maker to help myself to a cup. I wasn't much of a coffee drinker but if there was ever a morning I needed one it was this morning.

"Not so loud." Brian groaned. "I haven't drank like that in a very long time." He moaned into his cup and took big swig.

"Head hurts?"

"Yeah. That might be the understatement of the century."

"I wanna go get some breakfast. What'd ya say we wake the other two up and go eat? Grease'll make you feel better."

"Sounds good. You get Fi I'll get Roman. He won't miss out on a chance for food no matter what."

"Did I hear breakfast mentioned?" Rome asked with a yawn as he sat up off the floor where he'd been sprawled on his back. Brian and I shared a look then both burst out laughing.

"Yeah, we're gonna go to Frank's Diner for breakfast. You comin?"

"Hell yeah Brah, I'm there."

We woke up Fiona and decided to pile into Rome's car. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to enjoy the sun. We pulled up and got a booth. Once we'd eaten and were just sitting around kicken it Brian looked at me.

"How do you know Leon isn't gonna have a new car by the time you get home."

"I got Vince on it. He's supposed to find a reason to hate everything Leon looks at if he ever gets around to looking."

Brian smirked. "You trust Vince not to screw up?"

"Yeah I do." I grinned back. "I seem to remember Vince being smart enough to catch your ass breaking into Hector's garage. I also seem to remember that story ends with him knocking you out with the butt of a shotgun cause you didn't even hear him come up behind you."

"He had an unfair advantage. I didn't know he was there." Brian looked embarrassed.

"Good excuse Officer O'Connor. That what you gonna tell the boss when the criminals ambush you and hold you hostage too?"

"There's a bigger story there isn't there?" Fiona asked. I was worried at first talking about the time Brian had spent as a cop might not be the best idea in front of his sister. She wasn't exactly the happiest person that Brian wasn't a cop anymore.

"Not really. Brian was snooping around all over L.A. looking for specific cars and he was trying to get in good with us at the same time. Vince never trusted him and when he caught Brian snooping it was as good an excuse as any to knock him down, something Vince wanted to do from day one anyway."

"I seem to remember one day that I held my own with him out front of the store." Brian reminded me.

"I seem to remember you had your fair share of bruises after that fight too."

"Yeah, but he was feeling me the next day too."

"Everybody knows the white boy can't fight." Rome laughed. "I showed him that fact in Barstow."

"I let you win dude! I didn't want you to say you wouldn't work wit me cause I handed your ass to you. I couldn't embarrass you too bad. I needed you to be my partner."

"Yeah, a'ight." Rome was clearly not buying it.

"I can take you both so just simmer." I added, trying to look serious. Fiona high fived me and we both shared a look making it clear that be both believed it too.

"No doubt." Brian smiled his most charming smile. "You showed us that last night."

"I have to thank the good people at Acura for that, as well as Chumpy still racing just slightly better then he use to. Better but not that much." Brian wrapped an arm around my neck and pretended to choke me for what I'd said. I fought him off as best I could while Rome and Fiona laughed it up. He let me go a few seconds later and I showed him that you didn't pull wrenches for a living and have weak arms. I got him in a headlock and he couldn't get free until he got dirty and tickled me.

"Damn girl, you got quite a set of arms on you there." Brian said with a wince, rubbing his neck.

"Yeah, you're just weak." Brian made a sarcastic face at me as the waitress came with the bills. We all got up to pay and then headed out to the car. "What now Lett?"

"Why I gotta decide for?"

"I just thought you might have something you wanted to do today."

"Wouldn't mind working some on the Skyline. I wanna get it ready soon."

"Ok, I'll help you out with that then."

We all got in the car and headed back to Tej's. Rome and Fiona went off to join Tej in some of his boardwalk games while Brian and I went to work on the car.

xox

It took three weeks to finish the Skyline. On the day it was finally painted and ready to test start I'd been gone from home for two months. Two months is actually a very short period of time. Under normal circumstances two months is nothing, a drop in the bucket really. Two months away from your family and friends is a very long time indeed however.

The day we decided the Skyline was done was clear and sunny. It was starting to get cold though and it was clear that fall was coming. I mean I know it never gets cold in Florida but it wasn't warm like it was when I arrived. The season was changing and with it so was I. I felt years older then when I left L.A. even though I wasn't even one year older, yet. The day was coming though.

We rolled the skyline out into the sun and I slid into the replaced black interior. The ignition key was still on Leon's 'Trucker's Girl' keychain. He's such a playboy. But I wanted to give him the car back in the exact same shape he lost it in, just like it was never gone. For the most part I'd succeeded. For the most part.

It was now virtually impossible to get the wheels totally aligned. As a result it was always going to wear tires faster then other cars. There was also a small flaw in the passenger side front quarter panel. I couldn't get it perfect and in the end I decided to leave it there. It'd be a constant reminder to Leon to take care of his women and to me of my time in Florida and of what I was capable of. It was the exact same yellow as before and the graphics were identical as before. I'd designed them for Leon the first time and they were still just invocative of him somehow in my mind so they stayed. I'd written Kimi in quotes on the rear bumper and updated his sponsor decals to reflect the parts that were in the car now. Two written off cars totally rebuilt in 6 weeks. I was proud.

Proud and ready to go home. Home to my family, to my friends. To Dom. Most of all home to Dom. That was about when it occurred to me I was almost a year older now then I was when I left for real. My birthday was in a week, which meant Mia's was in slightly more. I'd never missed out on Mia's birthday since I knew her and I knew I had the best present I could get her already.

Her family whole again, including the man she'd never forgotten. _Brian. _

But first, we must confirm the Skyline runs and runs properly. Everyone was grouped around it, waiting on me to try it. I put the key in and took a deep breath. "Pray it starts." I joked to Brian.

"Of course it will. Give it!" Brian pushed me. "Hold up!" He stopped me just as I went to turn the key.

"Wha?" I asked, eyebrow cocked.

"You put gas in the tank?" Brian smirked.

"Yeah, I put gas in the tank. Smart ass." I muttered.

I tried to crank it over. It sputtered a few times and caught. It started to run but it was pretty rough. A few adjustments later it was running like new. Mostly thanks to Jimmy and Brian I have to admit. Brian really knew his stuff. Rome and I took the Skyline for a test run. I think we both knew it was the beginning of the end of our time together. The Skyline being done was the milestone I'd picked for when it was time to go home.

What Rome didn't know was I was determined to be home for Mia's birthday and that meant that Brian and I had to leave in the next day or two if we were gonna make it in time.

"It runs great."

"Yeah. I'm glad. I know Leon's been missing it. He couldn't find anything else he wanted and all the guys tried to find him replacements."

"Yeah. Letty?"

"Um?"

"You're leaving now aren't you?"

"Yeah. I realized that Mia's birthday is in just over a week and I've never missed one of her birthdays before. I don't intend to start now. I'm ready to go back."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." Rome did a lot for me in his own way. I figure the least I can do is answer his questions.

"You wanted to like me enough to stay with me on some levels didn't you?" I looked at Rome out of the corner of my eye and he was making an obvious show of the fact he was looking out the passenger window of the car.

"Hum. Yeah, I guess I did. If I was a different person I think I would have let 'us' go farther then it did. I just didn't think it was fair to you or to Dom or to myself to do that when I always knew I was going home to try and make my life with Dom work."

"I know you know I wanted more, but I respect the fact you can't go there with me right now." I shot him a look. "Or likely not ever." He chuckled to let me know he wasn't making one last guilt trip effort to get me to stay with him. "But I still want to thank you."

"Thank me? For what?"

"For showing me there are girls out there that are worthy of trust. You and Dom aren't even together at the moment and you still won't really date other guys. You're for real and that means there are other girls out there who wouldn't play me either. Since I can't have you," he sighed playfully. "I guess that means I should start seriously looking again."

"That's a good plan. And if things ever don't work out for me and Dom, you'll be the first of people on my list to call. But a guy like you won't stay on the market long I'm sure." We shared a laugh. I pulled the car back into Tej's and parked it. Rome started to walk with me down to the boat. "Now I just gotta break the news to Chumpy."

"Good luck with that. I'll miss you girl."

"You'll come visit. We got room and Brian'll want to see you, he'll want you to meet Mia."

"Sounds good. You just tell me when and I'm there."

"We'll do. I'll let you know when we know for sure when we're heading out."

"Ok, you do that. Night."

"Night." He hugged me and I hugged him back. For all his immature acting Rome was pretty cool and he'd shown me a lot about how to have fun and just live. I'd always value his friendship and that was strange for me for someone I'd only known such a short amount of time. I watched him walk off into the darkness then pushed onto the boat. Brian was watching TV and Fiona was no where to be seen. "Hey Bri."

"Hey Lett. Car work ok?"

"Yeah, great. Bri, we need to talk."

"That doesn't sound good. About what?"

"Now that the car's done, it's time to go back."

"You sure. I don't know if I'm ready?"

"Well, the thing is it's Mia's birthday in a week and I've never missed one. I think the best gift we could give her would be for her family to all be together again. She never stopped missing you Bri. Us coming home would be something we could do for her and lets face it she does a lot for us, you included while you were around."

"I see your point. When do you want to leave?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"Ok."

"Just like that?"

"I guess I knew it was coming. I've been putting shit together for a while now. I just gotta pack and tell Tej the exact day. Day after tomorrow is fine."

"Good. I'll start to pack then." Brian only nodded.

On the day before we were due to leave they threw us a going away party. Fiona was coming with us but Rome and Suki and Tej were staying put. We went out for dinner for the party. No one was in the mood to have a wild and crazy party. We were more in the mood for a friendly gathering. After we'd all eaten Tej stood up.

"I'm not normally the kind of person who makes speeches so bear with me here." He looked around at us and we all looked back, curious. "When Brian showed up he was just another would be racer with some skills and a car that made me overlook how small those skills were. Natural talent or no, he became some kinda racer and I'm gonna miss him showin me respect on my streets when he waxes. Gonna miss that fine Skyline too." Brian blushed but grinned too. He like to hear how much he'd improved. And the compliment on his car.

"And then he brought Letty around. I hate to say it but when I first met her all I could think was that the attitude and the skill level were no doubt way outta whack and it was the attitude that was inflated. She showed me wrong and I'd be more then glad to keep her around on a permanent basis if she wanted the job. She proved me wrong and I know I'm gonna miss her music blarin in the shop, and the money I was makin off punks doubting her ass." We all laughed again. "Now Brian, I'm sorry I didn't get you anything for your going away present, but I couldn't think of anything you needed more then me telling you go and take care. Good luck with Mia, and I hope her brother doesn't kill you." Tej turned back to me.

"You on the other hand Letty…I did think of something I could get you that you could use." He tossed me a small wooden box. I caught it and just stared at it, wondering what it could possibly contain. "Go on, open it." I took a deep breath and flipped the lid open. Nestled in the box on purple satin were the keys to the Acura.

"Every queen needs a proper chariot and I know you work that car better then I ever did. Plus it's only right that the two Phoenixes I know get to stick together. Girl you were a wreck when you got here but you rose up from the ashes just like both the cars you're takin with you. You taught me not to doubt people based on looks and you proved me wrong. I was bettin against you girl but you pulled through not on luck but on total skill."

"I can't take your car Tej." I couldn't. It was too much. Much as his speech had moved me, I couldn't.

"You earned it. It'll go to waste here Letty. Take it home with you. Show that king of yours that queens aren't less then kings. That they're just as good, meant to be partners. That car deserves someone like you to drive her, not to sit here and gather dust or get trailered all over the place with me. She's no trailer queen, she's a road warrior, just like you. You take her, take care of her."

"If you're sure?" He seemed really sure.

"Yeah, like I told you, I prefer my truck." Tej laughed to break the tension.

"Ok, I can't say no again. I don't wanna." I suddenly couldn't stop grinning. But then I had a thought. "How the hell are Brian and I gonna get five cars home with only three drivers?"

"I got you covered. I rented a car hauler for you guys. All five of your cars are loaded on it and the three of you will fit in the cab. It'll make the drive nicer if you're all in one place."

"Tej, I don't know what to say."

"Say thanks Tej." A satisfied smile was playing around his mouth.

"Thanks Tej." I gave him a quick hug and we both pulled away embarrassed. Brian tried to wipe at his eyes without anyone seeing. I guess I wasn't the only one who was moved by Tej's gesture. We sat around and talked for another while, took some pictures. It was our last time as the amended Miami team and it was sad. But in this case I could come back, visit. I had nothing but good memories here. Tej and crew would always be special to me now.

Tej's challenge, no matter how mean it at seemed at first has shown me what I was made of. Him making me race his car, or I guess my car now, had proved I was really good at what I did. I knew it would give me a different place to come from with Dom from now on. I didn't think he'd be trying anymore but he wouldn't be able to undermine my confidence in my mechanical skills or my racing skills.

We went home and went to bed. I didn't get a lot of sleep. I was too nervous. When we got up at the agreed time the next day we piled into the transport truck Tej had rented and Brian somehow knew how to drive and we headed out.

Homeward Bound.


	38. Flight of the Phoenix

**Tough But Tender**

By - _TempestRaces_

Chapter 38 – **Flight of the Phoenix**

"I think you shoulda turned there Brian!" I called as we drove right by what I knew was our exit to leave Florida for Alabama.

"No I didn't need to. We're fine."

"Were you sober when you left L.A. the first time Bri? Because we had to exit onto I-10 west and head toward Tallahassee to get home."

"I think she's right Brian." Fiona said, looking over my shoulder to read the map with me. "We definitely should have turned off there."

"I'll pull over to the next rest stop and we'll look at it then." Brian told us with a sigh and kept driving.

This rig is not the easiest thing to manoeuvre in the world either and if we had to get turned around it was going to be quite an adventure. We drove in silence until the next rest stop, Brian mad at us for thinking he didn't know where he was and us mad at Brian for not giving us at least enough credit to trust we knew how to read a map.

At the rest stop he took the map from us and looked it over. "Shit!" He exclaimed as he realized we had been right and we should have turned about 20 miles ago. Now he knew, as Fiona and I had always known, that we were going to need to back track and get back on the right road.

"Go ahead. Say it." Brian said, looking at us with a resigned look on his face. "I know you want to."

"Say what?" I asked him, fighting a big smirk.

"I told you so."

"I told you so!" Fiona and I said at the exact same time and cracked up laughing.

"Since we're here and stopped I'm gonna run in and use the bathroom and get a drink." I said as I waited for Fiona to hop out. They'd stuck me in the middle seat.

"Yeah I could go to the bathroom too." Fiona said as she got out of the truck. It was a bit of a trip to the ground, being up in what was essentially an 18 wheeler. I got down after her and stretched. There were a few kinks since we'd been in the truck for about 6 hours already. We were going to drive until eleven or twelve pm and then stop for the night. The trip from Miami to L.A. was slated to take about 43 hours. Of course we had the radar detector out of Leon's car hooked up so we were pushing the posted limits just a bit. We hoped to make it in 38 hours or so.

The cab of the truck was just a single cab though, and since we couldn't recline the chairs very far we'd agreed it didn't make sense to push straight through. We could have switched up drivers and had two people sleeping while one drove but since no one would be able to get very comfortable it wouldn't be very good sleep anyway. We figured we'd rather stop nights and rest up and arrive happy and safe then push too hard and have someone fall asleep at the wheel or just arrive home all cranky and irritable. We had enough on our minds and enough to look forward to without doing it all stressed out and tired.

I was just thinking about if I wanted a chocolate bar or not when Fiona came out of the bathroom. "Brian decided to fill up the tanks while we're here and I was thinking that we may as well just eat in the truck stop since we're here too. What'd ya think?" I asked her.

"May as well. I could eat and then we don't really need to stop again until we find a motel. It's already five pm anyway."

We left Miami at lunch time so we'd been on the road for five hours. I was ready for an hour outside of the truck. It's funny how on the way to Miami I only stopped to sleep and for necessity breaks. I didn't even care at the time. I just pushed right through.

Now that I'm not running from anything I don't want to push that hard. It's too stressful. I'm happier just taking it easier. Why kill ourselves? We have a week to make it home and it's only going to take four days. We'll be fine.

Brian came in to pay for his gas and we walked up to him at the register. "We decided to eat here before we move out. That ok with you?" Fiona asked.

"Yeah, fine. Then we can drive right through until we stop for the night."

"That's what we thought too." I tossed back over my shoulder as I walked into the diner part of the truck stop and got a booth. Fiona joined me and we were handed menus by a waitress who was a throw back to another time of waitresses. She had on cat's eye glasses on a chain around her neck and big hair in some sort of bun on top of her head. She walked away after giving us our menus and went to get our drinks.

When she came back we ordered and ate quickly. I guess even if we weren't in a rush none of us wanted to dawdle either. Brian insisted on paying the check and then we were off again. We back tracked, found our proper exit and got onto the 400 miles of I-10 we had to cover. If we kept up the same speed we had been making then we likely would cover it all before the end of the day. Then we'd look for a spot to hold up for the night in Baton Rouge.

By the time we reached Baton Rouge we were all ready to get out of the damn truck. It was all fine and good for us to all be together in one place and not have to worry about who's car could tow a trailer for the extra two cars we had to move, but damn my car would have been so much more comfortable then the cab of that truck. We walked into the motel cracking kinks out of our necks and backs.

It didn't take long to secure a double room and then we all took turns taking hot showers. I went last and then it was lights out. Brian got his own bed and Fiona and I decided to share the other one so no one had to sleep on the couch.

I've really gotten to like Fiona over the time I've known her. She can cook, she can sorta race, and she's pretty nice when she's not busy hating my guts. Since we came to an understanding we get along pretty well. Maybe she'll decide to stick around in L.A. if everything goes down according to plan. I think Mia would really like her and it would be nice for Brian to have some of his own family around.

I don't know what she's trained to do though. It never came up. She's too old to just sit around her father's house and do nothing. She can't be a student since she's been in Miami for like a month or so and she never seemed to worry about missing school or work. Of course it was summer so maybe she was on vacation. But she still should have started back by now if she was a student. I think I'll ask her about it tomorrow.

I got comfortable in the bed and tried to get some sleep. It wasn't coming to me. I was so excited. I'm almost home. Two more days and I'm going to be home. I'll be seeing Mia and Jesse and Leon and Vince again. Not to mention Edwin and Hector and Harry. I'll be seeing Dom again. I'll be home.

Home. I like the sound of that. Home truly is where the heart is and my heart belongs to L.A. You can move away but eventually most people will come home to their roots and it was time for me to go home to mine.

I have so many questions about what I missed while I was gone. Did my team go to race wars? How did they do? Is the garage busy? What about the café? Did Dom ever get any competition worthy of his time racing them? Will someone point out which skank is the skank who cheated on Leon?

Someone will because I'ma find her. I can't wait to show her a few things. Namely how it feels to have a broken nose.

Will Leon like his car? What will Dom think of the Acura? How are we going to tell the team we're home? So many questions that don't have answers. But they will, in a few short days. The only thing to do is play it by ear and let it play out. Things are gonna be how they're gonna be. I didn't even tell Vince we left Miami so no one is expecting us.

Next thing I knew Fiona was waking me up and it was broad daylight out. "Time to go get some breakfast Letty."

"What time is it?" I groaned. Too damn early was my personal answer.

"Nine am. Brian wants to head out as soon as we can."

"Ok, ok, I'm up." I crawled out of bed and dragged into the bathroom. I hadn't gotten to sleep until like three am. I wasn't ready to be awake yet but I see Brian's point. It's time to get going and the sooner we get moving the sooner we get home and the sooner I get to sleep in my own bed for the night. My own bed that I share with Dom. At least I hope I still share it with Dom. I haven't talked to him in awhile and I'm just hoping he still wants me back.

I got out of the bathroom dressed for the day and headed out of the room pushing my shades onto my face with my bag over my shoulder. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah, we're just gonna go eat at the diner attached to the motel and then head out. That cool?" Brian asked as he adjusted his own bag on his shoulder.

"That's fine by me." I answered him and walked over to the truck. I climbed up the side and tossed my bag into the Nissan. There wasn't room for all our stuff in the back of the truck so we had to store our bags in our cars. "You wanna toss me up your bags and I'll just chuck them in my car while I'm up here?"

Brian and Fiona tossed me their bags and I locked them in my car before climbing down. I fell in step between Brian and his sister. "Let's go eat some grub!" I said in a voice happier then I felt as I slapped Brian on the back heartily.

"Sounds good." Brian grinned. "I want French toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns."

"You're starting to sound like Rome." I chuckled.

"No, I'll never be able to eat like Rome."

"Don't count on it. You can pack it in white boy."

"Yeah. But not like Roman, and not like Vince."

"No body eats like my Coyote." I grinned.

"He didn't seem like he could out eat Rome while he stayed with us." Fiona mused.

"Wait until you see him at a barbeque at home. You'll see a boy who can eat then. He's always hungry."

"Letty?" Brian asked as we pulled the door of the restaurant open.

"Yeah?" I replied absentmindedly as I scoped the place out for a seat for us.

"Is Vince gonna kill me? And is Dominic gonna help?" Brian seemed honestly worried. I picked a seat and we sat in it. Fiona looked uncomfortable.

"No Vince and Dom are not going to kill you. But you might need the fighting skills you showed us the day you and Vince clashed the first time. I don't think it'll last long but Vince might start any conversations you two have with his fists. But he won't kill you."

"That's comforting." Brian smiled sarcastically.

"It's gonna be ok Brian. I mean if you hadn't run off then you wouldn't have gotten caught in Miami to do the job with Rome. And if you hadn't done the job with Rome the boys would all still be wanted felons." I shrugged. "They might be pissed at first but in the end they're going to see that it's because'a you they're home working not locked up wearing orange jump suits."

"I sure hope this realization comes without me needing false teeth." Brian said, smile looking a bit forced.

"Stop worrying so much." I told him as the waitress came back and we ordered. It wasn't too long later we were back in the truck and headed toward home again.

After another long day pushing the truck to the limit of the speed we were willing to push it to we found another motel and stopped for the night. Sleep was long coming for me again but I found it eventually.

I woke up the next day to a ringing cell phone which after looking at the display Brian tossed to me with a grimace. I flipped it open after checking out who was calling. It was the team. Why'd they have to call now? We'll be home tonight. Why couldn't they just have let it slide another day? "Hello."

"Hey Letty." Vince started as I answered.

"What the hell are you doin up this early V?"

"It's kinda complicated."

"Ok, how?"

"It's Mia. You know it's her birthday soon and she's sorta flippin out that you're not here and she's back to cryin about the buster."

_Great_. I sighed. "Well there's not a lot I can do about that right now Vince." I didn't want anyone to know we were coming. Not even Vince. I have an idea for how I'm going to get reintroduced to my team and none of it involves them knowing I'm in town before I show up.

"I know, but is there any chance you could fly home for awhile? I promise that I'll make sure he lets you go back again. I'll find a way."

"I might be able to work something like that out V. Let me work on it and I'll call you back tomorrow ok?"

It was Vince's turn to sigh. He didn't like my noncommittal answer. "I guess. Try hard Lett."

"Ok, ok. I get it V. I'll call you soon." I couldn't help my grin. I was really pulling one over on them. I'd be home in about 14 hours and I was letting him think I wouldn't even call him again for another 24. I can be awfully cruel when I want.

"Ok."

"Say V?" I thought of something in that second and man would it ever be sweet if it worked out.

"Yeah?"

"You guys goin racin tonight?"

"Yeah, far as I know. It is Friday. We go to races most Fridays, why?"

"Ok, I was just curious. Good luck."

"Thanks." Vince hung up, and I had clearly heard his confusion in the word thanks. I had him nicely confused now.

I closed the phone and tossed it back to Brian. "Time to get moving. We gotta get home by twelve tonight."

"Why?" Fiona asked me, puzzled.

"Because we are going racing in a Skyline, NSX and RX-7 that my team doesn't know and that is how we are going to let them know we are back in town. It's more neutral then the house so Dom and Vince are less likely to make a huge scene."

"Plus you get to kick a little ass?" Brian asked, smirking. "A little Italian ass?"

"Maybe." One corner of my mouth lifted in a smirk. "Let's get going."

So we did. We got dressed, ate and hit the road. We drove through the morning mist, the midday sun, evening dusk, and we hit the California border as true night hit. We hit the LA city limits at eleven and parked the truck at the garage. No one would be back to the garage until tomorrow and the cars we weren't driving would be safe locked inside. I still had the keys, I could only hope Dom hadn't changed the code to the security system, that it was still my birthday.

To say I was nervous would be the biggest understatement ever made. After two months with Dom having no idea where I was I was home. I was going to be seeing him again in an hour, less. My heart was in overdrive and my stomach would have rebelled, had it contained anything to rebel against.

I got the garage door open and rushed over to the wall panel. My code worked and I disarmed the security system quickly. I opened the bay door and we got the cars down, first my Nissan, then Brian's Skyline and Evo, followed by Leon's Skyline and Fiona's 7. Lastly we took the NSX off. It took the most doing because it had been covered in a car cover for the trip to keep the paint protected and we had to take the cover off so we could see to drive it down.

We put Leon's Skyline, Brian's Evo and my Silvia into the empty bays of the garage and then locked closed the door.

"Hey Brian?"

"Yeah Lett?"

"Can I use your Evo to play a little joke on Leon?"

"Sure, as long as nothin's gonna happen to it."

"I promise the car will be fine. I just wanna do a little somethin with it to fool him a bit. You'll see later when we take them back here to give Leon his car."

"Ok."

Fiona went with Brian while he moved the truck to the LA office of the company Tej had rented it from, Fiona following him in her car so she could drive him back again.

I used the time alone to clean up a bit in the shop bathroom. As I brushed out my hair I wondered at how long it had gotten since I'd been gone. I couldn't remember my last haircut so maybe that had something to do with it. I was also a bit smaller then when I'd left, mostly due to having more muscles on leaving then when I'd arrived in Miami. I picked out a pair of baggy combat pants in a creamy color and added a red tank top.

Totally different style from what I use to wear to races but that's half the point of why I left. Right? I hope so. I don't want to fall right back into hold habits and pretty much make my whole month spent away for nothing. As I left the bathroom ready Fiona and Brian got back and walked into the shop. It was eleven thirty. They were going to need to get ready quick if we were gonna make the warehouse before the first race was organized.

"We gotta get a roll on if we're gonna make it before the races start. I want in on the first race." I said and Brian clearly knew it was because Dom was always in the first race.

"You sure racin him is a good idea Letty? What if you win?"

"What if I do?" I asked, getting defensive but knowing what Brian was getting at. What if I won and Dom took it personal, like he couldn't handle his girlfriend beating him in a race.

"Can Dom take it?"

"If he can't I guess he'll damn sure learn quick." I sighed. "Brian, I don't even know if I can beat him. He's seriously good. I don't know if a new car and a new attitude will be enough to push me into his level even, let alone beat him. I've never managed to come that close to him before, let alone win. It's something I need to know."

"Ok, if you're sure about it."

"I am."

"Well, I'm already ready to go." Brian said. I looked at him. Black tee shirt and blue jeans, finished with chucks on his feet. He was ready because his outfit was just so, well, Brian.

"I'm not." Fiona headed into the bathroom with her bag and came out a few minutes later. At least she wasn't one of those girls who took hours to get ready, or if she was she knew how important it was for her to put it aside for tonight. When she was ready we left the garage. I turned off all the lights and locked up after arming the security system over again. I had a feeling we'd be back here after races were over because I couldn't imagine me going to bed tonight without showing Leon his car.

We all got into our separate cars and headed down to the warehouse alley. I stopped the car before we entered and got out. Brian walked over to me while Fiona watched out her windshield.

"I don't want them to know who I am or who you are until after I race. I think we should give Fiona the money to buy me in and let her give it to Hector. There's a small chance Vince might recognize her if he sees her but I hope he doesn't. So we'll just have her follow me and you can follow her. You and I will stay in our cars while she goes and buys me in. Then after the main crowd leaves she can get into your car and you guys can go to the finish line if you want."

"Ok, sounds good."

We related the plan to Fiona and she agreed. We gave her money and got back into our cars. I lead the way in and parked. I had a small crowd around the car a minute later but I stayed in my ride with the window up as I watched Fiona go over to Hector. I'd described him to her and I guess I did a good job.

She said something to him and he looked at her like she was crazy. She pointed at me in the NSX and showed him the roll of bills. Hector called out behind him. Man I wish I could hear what they're saying. Then Dom walked up to them.

He's lost weight, was all I could think. His face looked weary. I want to go to him so much it's killing me. I see him and my soul still knows that at his side is where I belong. I had to grab the wheel and hold on so tight my knuckles turned white just to keep myself in the car and out of his sight.

Fiona pointed at the car again and Dom got a more familiar look on his face. His 'who wants to race me' disbelieving smile. Like when Brian had told him he almost had him. Like that smile. That 'oh you think so' look that Dom does so well. When he smiles like that I love him for his assuredness. There's something to be said for confidence in a man. Fiona held up the money again. I want to know what exactly is being said so bad. But if I get out of this car it's all over.

Dom made a gesture and Hector took the money. Dom walked back over to Mia, who I hadn't noticed until now and Fiona started my way. I cracked my window so that we could see each other from where she stood and I sat, but that anyone farther away wouldn't see my face as it would still be behind tinted glass.

"They think you're crazy but you're in. They said to tell you to watch for the red RX-7 to leave then follow it to the line."

"Ok, you and Brian come to the finish line too. That's where the shit is going to hit the fan when I get out, no matter who wins. Ok?"

"Yeah, good luck."

"Thanks. See you in the winner's circle." I told her with a wink.

"We'll be there." Fiona walked to the passenger side of Brian's Skyline. I guess seeing the blonde Fiona had first caught Leon's eye but the car sealed the deal. Thankfully Dom roared by as Leon started toward the silver beast and I took off, Brian following. Leon walked back over to Vince's car in my rear view and they followed us to the line. I lined it up, careful to keep a car between me and Dominic. It was some kid I didn't know but he sort of looked like Hector so maybe it was one of his many cousins.

There was a great deal of waiting as we waited on the boys to get a clear scan and start the race. My palms were sweaty and my heart was trying to escape from my chest. I was about to race Dom. Not only that but Dom had no idea it was me. Only god knows what the outcome of this is going to be. I don't know if I'll win or lose, and I don't know which I want more.

Hector held up his arms. I revved up the car. Dom and the other two guys did the same. The crowd was so loud I could hear them roaring over the noise of our four engines growling.

Hector dropped his arms. Four cars squealed off the line. I got out in the lead. The car off to my left was rapidly falling back. The car on my right, the one between me and Dom was keeping up with me. Dom was half a car off him. Dom always does that though. It's to get some sort of mental advantage. He lets you think you're winning but you're not. He's toying with you.

I shifted up a gear and gained more. The guy from my left was long gone. The guy from my right was starting to fall back too. Dom was moving up fast.

Shit, I forgot this is a quarter mile sprint. There are no turns and no strategy to use here. Just run it, fast as you can. I floored it and gained another gear, moving away from Dom again. We'd left the second guy in the dust at this point too and we'd only been racing about 3 seconds. Funny how the experience feels almost like slow motion. No, it's even slower then that. It's like it goes into bullet time.

I shifted up again and realized Dom was actually at my rear corner, I was almost a car ahead of him. I knew it didn't mean anything. Getting complacent was when most guys lost to Dom. As if to illustrate my point he used his nitrous and got out in front. I hit mine and caught him. We were now side by side and it was clear that Dom had given up on his mind tricks. He was just running for all he was worth and my only shot was to do the same. I hit my second shot of nitrous and got away from him a bit but he was right back beside me with a push of a little red button. The finish line was in sight and we were still side by side.

Neither of us gained an inch or lost one either. I growled. I wanted this win more then anything. A quick glance to my right showed Dom looking straight ahead. He always raced with his windows down. Don't know why. I had the car wide open and in my top acceleration gear. I hit the spray again and edged up a bit on Dom, but it was like he'd used a third hit at the exact same time and edged me a bit.

As we both flew over the finish line I couldn't tell you who was out front. I just didn't know. We all pulled up, the other two fellas crossing a second after Dom and I. I was almost hyperventilating.

I'd done it. I was home and I'd raced Dom. I didn't know if I'd won or lost and I didn't care. Because now I had to get out of the car and see Dom. And that was ten times more frightening then anything else I'd been through in the whole of my life to that point. I could see him standing over by his car with Vince, Leon, Edwin and Hector. They looked like they were deep in thought. Then they started my way. Ok, now or never.

With a deep breath I started to open the door. I threw it open on an impulse. No matter how shittless I'm scared I should make this look confident. I stood up out of the car as they reached the side and looked at everyone but Dom before I let my eyes climb up his frame and reach his face. At first he just looked at me, head slightly cocked to one side like he didn't know who I was.

Leon was shocked too. He looked like he had some mental disorder as he stood gapping. Vince was smirking like he knew all along, and I guess due to the rarity of the car he might have had ideas. My gaze moved back to Dom, who still hadn't said anything and looked like he still wasn't sure if I was real or not. I had to do something.

"Well, who won?" I asked, smirking.

"That's my girl!" Vince laughed as he grabbed me into a hug. "You bitch." He whispered into my ear. "Letting me think you might not even come home for her big day."

"I was already three quarters of the way home when you called."

He laughed, like really laughed, head thrown back as he released me. "You always were kinda sneaky."

Leon moved in. "LD!" I got my hug from Leon, who was grinning from ear to ear. "Damn girl, you look _good_!" He got a glare from Dom for that, the glare being the first reaction Dom had shown since I got out of the car.

"Well, don't anyone know who won the damn thing?" I asked again, getting worried about Dom's lack of reaction and speech. I glanced over at the silver Skyline and tried to tell them to stay put for the moment.

"No one." Hector finally answered me. "Everyone agreed it was a tie."

And maybe that was for the best, I figured. I'd really tried to beat him, he'd really tried to win so we were equal, with neither better then the other. Maybe that was how it should be. Partners who were equal, wasn't that what Tej had said?

Mia came running up. "Letty!" She grabbed me so hard she tossed me back into the side of my car and started to try and hug the life right out of me. I hugged her back just as hard. "You didn't even tell us you were coming back."

"Surprise!" I said as I grinned. Dom had still yet to say anything. Like that fact occurred to them all they shared a look with each other. "Maybe we should leave you two alone for a minute huh?" Mia asked, ever perceptive.

"I don't think you can leave us alone in front of a crowd this big Mi." I told her. "But perhaps a few minutes would be good." I admitted with another glance at Dom's unreadable face.

They moved off into a little huddle at the side of the race strip and I stood in front of Dom. "Don't you have anything to say to me?" I asked him, getting nervous enough to almost gag because of it. Why wasn't he saying anything? I'd rather that he screamed and yelled at me then just stood there. He shook his head no to answer my question and I got really worried.

A half second later I was in Dom's arms and he was kissing me like I don't know if he ever kissed me before. There was so much emotion in the kiss he gave me I wanted to cry with it. His arms crushed me to his chest as he kissed me like I'd only ever seen men kiss women in the movies before. My arms came up around his neck as I kissed him back. I'd missed him, even more then I'd let on. He released me to a symphony of cat calls and cheering a second later.

"Ay papi." I grinned. He didn't smile back. "Something I said?"

"Missed you." Dom finally said. Those simple words meant more to me then any huge speech he ever could have made. "Don't ever do anything like this again."

And then the rest of the team had us in a group hug to end all group hugs and we were all laughing and crying all at the same time and it was good. When we all pulled apart I grabbed Dom around his neck and kissed him again, just for good measure. I can't stop grinning. Everything's gonna be ok now. I can just feel it. He didn't flip out I tied him. That can only be a good thing.

Oh shit! Brian and Fiona are still in the Skyline. "Um well guys, the surprises aren't over. You might have guessed I'm home because of Mia's birthday." That sounded bad. Like I wouldn't have come home if not for it being Mia's birthday. "Well, at least that's what made me plan the dates. I was ready to come back too, but I didn't want to miss out on the party. I guess what I'm saying is I brought myself home for me, and for Dom and Mia too, but I'm not stuck up enough to think that I'm enough of a present for Mia's birthday so I got her something else."

Mia was looking at me happily, wondering what her surprise was. The rest of the team looked intensely curious. I waved 'come here' toward the Skyline. The doors slowly opened. Then Brian got out. A hush fell over the crowd as he walked over to where we stood. No one had seen him in almost a year and everyone had their own opinion on where he went and whether he should just stay there or not. It was like the crowd held their collective breath as they waited for the reaction of my team to Brian's presence. No one said anything as Brian looked at them and they looked at Brian.

"Um, hey guys."


	39. Talking with our Fists

**AN: _I have no excuses as to why this took so long to arrive. I'm sorry to leave you all hanging so long, but I can't promise it won't happen again. I hope it doesn't. I'm just like a female Coyote though, I'm too darn set in my ways to change now. I can't tell you all how much it meant each time someone took time to let me know they were still interested in this story even thought I let you all down by making you wait so long. Hope it was worth the wait. Enjoy. Always, Tempest._**

**Tough But Tender**

By _TempestRaces_

Chapter 39 – **Talking with our Fists**

Brian stood at my side and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. Vince broke the silence first.

"What the fuck is the buster doin' here?"

"Um," I said as I tried to decide how to answer that.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ. I shoulda known. B! B was the punk's name. The dude you were stayin' with, all you'd ever call him was B. It always stood for fuckin' Brian."

Vince was pretty damn mad. It really didn't take him long to figure that one out. I'm always tellin' people he's not as dumb as he tries to let them think. Dom was still just standing off to the side and Mia looked like she was literally in shock.

"Dude I'm gonna mess up the pretty blonde face!" Vince shouted before he made a lunge for Brian.

"Vince!" I roared. When he didn't show any signs of listening to me I stuck my foot out and sent him skating across the gravel covered tarmac. "Yeah, I was stayin with Brian. But the 'punk' as you keep callin' him kept your ass alive and outta jail. So you don't have to like him but you sure as hell do have to respect what he did."

Vince moved to stand beside Leon, mad I wouldn't let him beat up Brian and upset I made him almost take a header in front of all the racer chasers. He gave me a mutinous look but kept his thoughts to himself. Vince was my boy, we'd be chill by tomorrow, that was just how it was. But for tonight he was hellishly pissed at me.

Mia had yet to say anything. See looked vaguely like Brian had when I told him he was coming back to California with me like it or not. Like a deer caught in the oncoming lights of an eighteen wheeler. She opened her mouth a few times without saying anything before she finally found her voice. "Why didn't you ever come back?"

"I was too scared," Brain answered, running a hand through his messy hair with a sigh. "I had to run away because if the cops found me I was going on the stand against you guys whether I wanted to or not. I didn't want to. That's why I gave Dom my keys and let him go. But that wasn't enough. If they had me in custody then they had their material witness. So I took off. I didn't want to, but I knew what it would do to you if your brother went to jail again.

Once I was cleared officially, and therefore got you guys cleared along with me I figured it'd been too long. I convinced myself that a girl like you would have moved on, would have found someone else and wouldn't want to see a guy who'd been so stupid."

"But I loved you."

"I loved you too. I couldn't move on myself but you fell for Brian the down on his luck racer. Not Brian the LAPD officer. I figured once you found out I'd been lying to you and your family you'd just decide I wasn't really the guy you'd gotten to know and give up on me."

"I tried." Mia started to cry. I felt bad we were all standing around witnessing this. Not that I didn't already know the story, but it couldn't be easy for Brian to open up about all this in front of Dominic and Vince. Leon was so easy going he'd just stand there and you'd never know he was there anyway, but Vince was barely containing his ire and Dom's stone faced quiet act wasn't actually all that good of a sign.

"Then when I ran into Letty out of the blue at a race and she almost kicked my ass for never going back and told me about everything I realized what I'd done but I figured it was really too late. I'd messed up too bad."

"Then why are you here now?" Dom asked, his face still a wooden mask, totally unreadable.

"Because Letty was right when she told me if she had the courage to leave than I could find enough to go back again. I left unfinished business here and it's time it was settled."

Dom nodded. "I wanna start by saying thank you. Thank you for the Supra, thank you for keeping my friends and family out of jail, and thank you for taking care of Letty when she was away from us. That all took guts and so did coming back here again."

Brian only nodded, an uncertain look on his face. He clearly thought this was going too well. I agreed with him.

"But you broke my little sister's heart," Dom continued. "And I told you what I'd do if that happened. You told me it wasn't going to, but you lied."

"I can only tell you I'm honestly sorry again and I was in so far over my head that I honestly didn't think I would ever hurt her. I had myself convinced that in the end I'd find someone else to blame and we could still be together."

"I'm just sorry that's not good enough Brian." And with that Dom stepped forward and punched Brian square in the mouth. Hard.

Brian went down so fast he didn't even have time to make a noise. Fiona hit the ground on her knees beside her brother as both she and Vince gave Dom a dirty look.

"Why wasn't I allowed to do that again?"

"Because he kept your mangy ass outta prison and kept you alive that's why," Dom growled. "I got a legitimate beef with him. You don't."

"Dominic Toretto!" I yelled. Dom turned to look at me, his face the ultimate in innocent looks.

"Yeah?" He knew I was going to be pissed off so he was trying to be all sweet and nice now.

"How many times will you need to be told not to beat up people for a solution to life's problems?" I growled.

"Oh, I figure about as many as you will." He smirked.

"Touché." I answered. What could I say to that? He was perfectly correct. Unfortunately. Damn, I hate it when the boy is right.

Brian rubbed his jaw. "Are we ok now?"

"That depends on Mia." Dom answered in Brian's direction.

We all looked at Mia. She looked confused. "I just don't know." She finally said.

"It's ok Mi. You need time to take it all in. Bri's gonna hang with us awhile and you can get to know him again and see what you think." I said as I put an arm around her shoulders. "I guess this would be as good a time as any to introduce you all to Fiona, Brian's sister." Everyone turned to look at the blonde girl at Brian's side. She gave a timid wave, still pissed at Dominic, but intimidated by us all. "Fi, this is Mia, Dominic, Jesse, Leon, and Vince. Oh wait, my bad, you two already know each other." I smirked at that one.

"You're the buster's sister?" Vince asked in disbelief.

"I'm Brian's sister, yes." Fiona answered, still outraged on her brother's behalf.

"That makes the silver R34 Brian's?" Leon asked, in shock.

"Yeah." I answered, smirking. "That reminds me, did you ever find a new car?"

"No." Leon answered shortly and his face took on an irate look.

"Which also reminds me, Vince come 'ere." Vince walked over to me, the look on his face telling me we were not alright tonight, at least. "Which skank is 'the' skank?"

Vince scanned the crowd before his eyes turned hard as ice. "The blonde over there by Danny Yakima." I knew from the look on his face were she a boy, she'd already have been beaten down. Of course, were she a boy we wouldn't be in this position.

"Ok, I'll be right back." I started toward the girl, striding confidently over to her and her friends.

"Where's Letty goin'?" I heard Dom ask as I walked across the street. I was too far away to hear Vince's reply.

I strode right up to the blonde bitch. She looked me up and down before dismissing me with a snort to her friend. We all know by now about how well that went over. When I didn't walk away at her dismissal she looked back at me. "Yeah?"

"You use to date my friend Leon?"

"Yeah. So?"

"He caught you cheating on him?"

"Not like he wouldn't have just started cheatin' on me." She answered.

Clearly the gravity of the situation hadn't dawned on her. "Maybe he woulda and maybe he wouldn'ta." I grinned. "Stupid, stupid ho."

"'Scuse me?" Her head snapped up at the insult.

"Didn't you know who he was before you decided to cheat on him."

"I know who he is. He's just some lapdog for Dom and I can do better. He doesn't even race."

"Be hard to race when he crashed his car over some stupid bitch." She gasped at the direct insult.

"Listen bitch, I did what I did. I don't see where it's any of your business."

"You haven't been in this world long have you?" I gestured around the alleyway to show I meant the racing world, not the world in general.

"Few months. I met Leon right after I started coming here."

"Well, lemme fill you in on something. I'm Letty. I'm Dom's girlfriend. Leon is one of my best friends and when you fuck with my family you fuck with me."

"I'm scared now." She rolled her eyes.

"It'd be smarter if you meant it." I said before I punched her in the nose. Hey, if Dom can take out what Brian did to Mia with his fists than I can take out what this ho did to Leon with mine.

She cried out in pain, holding her nose. It wasn't enough yet. Her friends were calling for help though so I knew I had better make the rest of it fast. I hit her again, in the stomach this time. "I don't like it when triflin' bitches mess with my family. What's mine I take care of." I hit her again, in the jaw this time. She tried to fight back right around then but I was pretty mad. She didn't get much of a defence in.

I guess Dom finally decided she'd paid enough because he came and got me, an arm around my waist to drag me back to the team. "Remember that next time you play somebody bitch!" I called as Dom pulled me backwards. He was smiling though. "Don't even say it." I warned him with a grin as I looked over my shoulder. "You got no position to get preachy from tonight."

"Wasn't gonna say a thing." He said and chuckled. "Still talkin' with your fists."

"I'm a Latina, I got my excuse. What's yours?"

"Italians got tempers just as bad as Latins I guess."

We got back to the team. Dom looked at my skinned knuckles and clucked before planting a kiss over the worse one. Leon looked at me and there was a happy light in his eyes at first before he likely figured he shouldn't be happy about seeing puta get her ass kicked. "Wasn't that big of a deal Lett."

"Oh, I disagree. It was that big a deal. She messed with the wrong boys when she messed with my family." I let it drop. "So you still never replaced the car." Leon shook his head.

"Well, you know what that means."

"What?"

"You have to take the one I got for you. I told you if you didn't have a new car by the time I got home I was getting you one."

"You got me a car?" Leon asked.

"Mmmm." I answered nonverbally.

"Where's the Silvia and where the hell did you get an NSX?" Dom found his wits enough to ask. I was wondering when he was going to comment on my missing Silvia.

"The Silvia is at DT with Leon's new ride and the NSX was a gift from a friend."

"What kind of friend? Cause I'd really like to know what kind of friend he coulda been that he bought you a eighty thousand dollar car." Dom was very jealous. Good sign. As long as he doesn't get all clingy and possessive. That'd just be weird.

"A good friend and that was all. The car was smashed up when he gave it to me to rebuild and when I was done he said it was so much mine it wouldn't be right for him to keep it."

"But this car, the way it looks like its build is worth a shit load." Dom still clearly couldn't wrap his head around anyone giving away such a nice car.

"Well, it's got about thirty thousand bucks worth of performance parts in it. If I was going to do that paint job for a customer I'd charge about ten grand. He told me I was building it for him so I went all out."

"'Nough 'bout that for now! What'd ya get me?" Leon asked, hope lighting his eyes.

"A big ol' surprise." I retorted. He groaned. "Well, who else thinks the rest of this conversation can wait until after a trip to DT to see the newest team DT member?"

A chorus of hell yeahs answered my question. We all got into our separate cars and roared off toward DT. When we got there we all parked in the back and Dom unarmed the security. I walked in first, followed by Leon and everyone else came in after. There was my Silvia, gleaming under the florescent lights. It was accompanied by two car cover concealed companions.

"Which is the one you got me?" Leon asked, clearly nervous.

"This one." I said, uncovering the Evo with a flourish.

It was clear Brian was fighting a grin, in on my little secret. Vince looked shocked. I hadn't let him in on the joke so I have not doubt he thinks I couldn't fix the Skyline. Jesse rushed over to the new car.

"An Evo VIII! No shit. This car isn't even out yet! It's only in limited production in Japan. How'd you get one?"

"I'm just that good I guess." I shrugged with a grin on my face. Leon didn't look very happy. Of course I hadn't expected anything else.

"You don't like it?" I asked, forcing my face to morph into a look of upset.

"I like it fine Lett, it's just that it's not the Skyline is all. I'll get use to it."

"Oh. Well, would you like this better?" I asked as I walked over to the other covered lump. "I mean, I had to have a little selection for you after all." I lifted the bottom of the cover just enough to show the word 'Kimi' in black script against the yellow background on the second car's bumper.

"You have got to be shittin' me!" Leon yelled as he started slowly my way, like he was scared to believe that he was really seeing what he was seeing. Even Dom and Jesse looked shocked.

"That's gotta be a yellow Silvia under there." Dom offered his guess. Vince smirked, knowing exactly what was under the cover.

"It has to be a 240." Jesse said, unable to comprehend the other option.

"Try again." I retorted and flung the canvas off the Skyline. Kimi sat there gleaming in the harsh light, the green eyed warrior slashing his way down the side. "I hope Suki got the graphics right. I did it the best I could remember but I didn't have my sketches with me so I had to go totally from memory."

"Holy shit it's the Skyline." Jesse called before he jumped up in the air and landed on Leon with a whoop. "It's the Skyline!"

Leon didn't have an answer. He just stood behind the car with Jesse hanging from his neck.

"Don't just stand there Leo, go check it out." I said and gave him a gentle push toward his car. He moved over to the right hand side of it like he was in a daze and reached out a hand to touch the roof. This allowed him to see inside, see all his equipment still mounted right where he'd left it. He just stood beside the car, his face hidden from us by his position.

"Jesus Christ Letty, who fixed it up?" Dom asked, moving up behind me. "That car was beyond fucked. I got to the scene before they towed it."

"I fixed it. Well, Brian and I mostly."

"You?"

"Yeah, me." I looked at Dom and he looked down at me and I swear to god he was about to cry.

"Everyone's home where they belong now." He said with awe in his voice. "Things can finally get back to normal." He wrapped an arm around me waist from behind and kissed the crown of my head.

I looked back at Leon and he still hadn't moved. I walked up behind him. "Is it ok?" I didn't give him time to answer. "I mean, I knew the color we painted it the first time so that part wasn't hard but when I had to order the new seats I was a little iffy on what model you had before so I just did my best." He still didn't say anything when I came up for air. "Leon, are you ok?" I put a hand on his shoulder. He nodded. I realized then that he was crying. Before I could figure out what to do with that information he was hugging me so hard I thought I might snap in two.

"This is literally the nicest thing anyone ever did for me." Leon muttered into my hair. "I thought I was never going to see this car again." He squeezed me even tighter for a moment before he leaned back. "How'd you get a hold of it?"

"Well, Vince shipped it to me after Brian's dad got it out of impound."

"I just don't know what to say." Leon said, still shocked to the core.

"Say 'thank you Letty'." I told him with a grin.

"Thank you Letty." He parroted before kissing me square on the mouth. I laughed.

"Hey!" Dom called but it was clear he was just teasing. Leon blushed.

"It's not quite the same as it was before you," I paused. "Well, before." I let it stand at that. "I couldn't get it all the way straight so it drives ok and you'd really never know there was anything wrong with it until you tried to do a wheel alignment on it. It's gonna wear tires faster than it did, even with all the burnouts you do," I winked at him. "And there's a," I didn't know the word for it. I made a wavy motion with my hand. "A wiggly part in the front fender. I couldn't get it out, I couldn't find a fender for it and in the end I just kinda decided to leave it there."

"I don't care!" Leon laughed. "I'd take it back in a different colour with the headlights hanging out by the wiring and cable ties holding the front bumper on."

We all laughed.

"That is the coolest thing I've ever seen Lett." Jesse said as he bounced around the car. He popped the hood. "Damn! You set it back up just the way I had it too. You got one hell of a memory."

"That, and Brian really knows his Skylines."

"Where'd the Evo come from?" Vince asked, circling it like a vulture.

"It's Bri's." I told him.

"How the hell did you get an Evo VIII before the car even came out in this country?"

Brian retold the story of how he'd done the job to redeem himself to the FBI and clear his record, which had in turn cleared all of ours. By the time he was done it was five am and it was time to get some sleep. We parked the Acura in the shop along with Mia's car. But first we backed the Skyline out. There was no way Leon was not taking her home tonight.

No one but me noticed that when he slid inside the car he started to cry again. It'd be our secret. How'd I stay away from my family this long? Leon, always my sensitive one.

I rode home with Dom. Just like Leon wasn't letting Kimi out of his sight now that he had her back, Dom wasn't letting me out of his. I watched as Mia decided to ride home with Brian. Fiona slid back into her own car with an enigmatic look at Vince. Could she possibly have feelings for Coyote? That'd be the day, I told myself.

We pulled up to the house and everyone headed to bed. Mia and Brian went into her room together, I assume to talk. Vince headed down to his basement domain with Leon and Jesse in tow. Leon turned at the top of the stairs to look at me.

"Thanks LD. I really mean that."

"No sweat Leo. You'd do the same for me."

He nodded and headed down. I put Fiona in the guest room upstairs before heading into what I assumed would once again become our room instead of just Dom's. I found him sitting on the side of the bed, looking at his hands. I closed the door and leaned against it. "So, I suppose there are some things you wanna talk about, huh Dom?"

"Nope."

I did a double take at his answer. "Come again."

"Tomorrow is soon enough for talking. Tonight is for this." He got up and crossed the room to stand in front of me, his movements reminding me of a panther stalking its prey. He cupped the side of my face with one of his huge, work rough hands before leaning over to kiss me.

My arms wrapped around his neck as I felt his hands move down to start flirting with the hem of my tank top. He was right, talking could wait. I felt behind me along the wall and flicked the light off.

There were more important things to take care of tonight.


	40. My Messy Family

AN: Its been so long coming I think this needs to be addressed with a huge apology! I'm so very sorry this story fell to the way side when I knew it only needed one chapter. It just needed to be the right chapter. And how I wanted to handle it just sort of came to me today. I hope no one is disappointed with how it ends. I thought it had to be a million pages long to be what I wanted to be but in the end its just a normal chapter but I think it ties up the loose ends nicely. I hope everyone else who still remembers this story feels the same.

Chapter 40 – My Messy Family

"So you're the girl that asshole in the MR-2 ran his mouth about to Vince?"

The deep bass rumble of Dom's voice shocked me in the deep darkness of night and the comfortable silence we were curled around each other in. "Yeah, I guess so," I replied and I knew I hadn't kept the sound of smirk out of the answer. Dom rubbed my back absently in the dark and the room fell silent for what felt like forever, because I could tell that Dom was brooding, which was never good.

"I've really held you back, haven't I? Keeping you from racing, from getting into painting cars, not just fixing them up, running my shop because I can't be bothered to do it, just to take the credit for the fact that it keeps running."

"I don't run the shop Dom." I couldn't totally deny the other points he made, but I had to figure that by not breaking free sooner, by not putting my foot down sooner, small and ineffectual a foot as it would have been against Dominic's will, I had some responsibility to shoulder there as well. It was easier to go with the flow and because I did and I let him take away my choices I got bitter and angry and that contributed to the gulf between us. That meant that in some small way I was responsible for driving Dominic to needing a break from me, from us. I'd helped drive him to the edge. But I still think the time apart was for the best, if he was admitting that he knew I was behind him at the shop, keeping everything in line.

"Yes you do. Without you there, parts didn't get ordered, they didn't show up on time if they had been ordered, there was too much shit to do some days and not enough others and trust me, the guys wouldn't let me forget why things were normally smoother. I hold you back, keep you stuck by my side managing the business side of the garage and you never wanted it. It's my shop, not yours."

"It's ours Dom. You just don't give me credit where credit is due for what I do there. I can do more than you let on, and I do more than you used to realize."

"Are you still going to work with me, or are you going to look for somewhere else to work?"

I couldn't read his tone, so I didn't know if he was hinting he wanted me to look elsewhere or whether he was imploring me to come back to DT. Used to be I would have got my back up about it, choosing to think he was trying to get rid of me. It was still my initial reaction, to be honest. But I bit it back. "Do you want me to come back to DT?"

He sighed heavily and was silent another moment before he answered me. "Christ Letty, I don't know what I'll do without you. I've missed you so much over the last few months. I've looked around wondering where you were when I needed your help with something or just wanted to tell you something, some stupid little story about anything and you," his voice broke a little and I realized he was on the verge of tears, something Dominic Toretto hadn't done in front of me since his dad died, "you weren't there, and it'd all come crashing back, how stupid I was and how I made you leave. Made you leave me and the shop and the guys and Mia. I never want to look around again and not find you in your bay, working on the stupid job I gave you or sassing off at Vince. I don't think I can survive it. But I'll find a way if it's what you want. If you want some freedom and some independence, I'll get used to it."

The thing about family is that it's messy. You get in the middle of everyone's business and you can't have any secrets. Your only personal space is a small bedroom with a double bed and an old and busted TV and a few drawers in a dresser. In my case it wasn't even mine, I had to share it with Dominic as well. It's doubly so when you work with your family and spend almost every hour of every day in each other's company, up in each other's business. Maybe it was just my Latin heritage showing through, maybe it was because it was all I'd ever known, but I couldn't imagine not spending the day with my family, the night with my family. I didn't want to work in some garage where every day was just a 9-5 spent in a corner working solo with my Ipod for company.

"I want to work with my boys. I miss being with my family Dominic. We're not just staff of a garage, or a team of racers, we're a family. We work as a family, we live as a family. I took a break from the family but I don't want it to be permanent. Half the enjoyment in my job is the fact that when we do it well, we do it well as a family, not just a team."

"Oh thank god," Dom laughed and hugged me to him. "I never want to be apart again. I thought I was gonna murder Vince without you around to break us up. And I don't know how to deal with Jesse on a 24/7 basis, he needs someone with a softer touch than I'm capable of, and I didn't know what to say to Leon when he was hurting, or how to deal with Mia on her bad days. You're part of what keeps us as a family Letty. You're the one who knows how to be strong when you need to be and soft when you don't. We're not a proper family without our queen, Reina. And I'm going to try to remember that we're equals from now on."

It was my turn to laugh. "Good, that sounds good." I felt Dom lean toward the side of the bed, and I heard him shuffling through his drawer. A second later the light on his bedside table flashed on. I blinked and groaned. He looked at me so seriously. "What's the matter," I asked, paranoid about what other shoe was about to drop.

"I want to ask you something and I need the light on to do it," he started. "I was going to beat Vince into telling me where you were, tomorrow. I couldn't wait anymore for you to come home. I didn't want to miss your birthday because I was an idiot, so I had to bring you home so I could give you your present."

I realized that tomorrow was indeed my birthday. "But my birthday's not until tomorrow. So you haven't missed it. You can't give me my present today, it's a day early."

"Yeah, well, I can't wait anymore." He reached in under the sheet and pulled out a small box, and my breath caught in my throat. "I wanna make it official. Since half of everything I own is already yours, make it official and marry me Leticia Rodriguez?" He opened the box on the most beautiful ring I've ever seen. The diamond sparkled against the black velvet inside of the box. "It was my mom's but I wanted you to have it, and Mia agreed that it was perfect for you, but if you'd rather pick one yourself, I understand."

Dom looked so unsure. I dunno if he thought I wouldn't want his mother's ring or that I just wouldn't want to marry him but he was wrong on both counts. I had never really thought of us getting married. I figured we'd just live together forever and call it close enough. I couldn't see me in a white dress or fussing with my hair or flowers, and I couldn't see Mia letting me get away without the whole production but suddenly I wanted all of it more than I could ever say. I wanted the ring and the dress and I wanted to put up a fight while Mia did my hair and makeup and shaped my eyebrows. Rather than answer him I let a grin spread over my face and held out my left hand. He slid the ring in place with a relieved sigh and pulled me under him, as he reached out to turn out the light. I hope no one expected to see us before mid afternoon, I thought with a smile before giving into what Dom was doing to me with his hands and lips. Giving into our future. It was right here in this over crowded house with this big, silent man who loved me more than I knew and our loud obnoxious family who I wouldn't change for love nor money.

When we finally did wake up for the day, I couldn't remember the last time I felt so well rested and happy. I looked at my finger and couldn't keep the grin off my face. "I can't believe I'm gonna be someone's wife for fucks sake." I looked at Dom with an evil grin. "I can't wait to see Mia put you in a tux."

Dom groaned. "That's just cruel."

"Yep, it is. But you know she's not letting us get away without doing the whole deal. You're the only family she's got left Dominic."

"That's not true Lett. She's got you."

"Well, I guess we're gonna make it official. She can finally tell people I'm her sister and mean it legally. I guess we should get up and tell them all. That and make sure that Vince hasn't killed Brian."

"Do you think Mia will forgive him?" Dom asked and I could hear the uncertainty in his tone.

"Do you want her to?"

Dom rubbed his head like he does when he's really thinking about something. "I think so, yeah. I mean, he did alright by us Letty. And she's never stopped looking around corners for him to show back up. And obviously he's never gotten over her either. I think they could be happy again. But even if everything we do now beyond the racing is above the law, I don't know if I can stand living with a cop."

"He's not a cop anymore Dom. He really is just a street racing punk this time around. I think they could be happy again."

"I hope so." With that said, Dom pushed himself out of bed with a groan and headed to his dresser, pulling on some clean boxers before stepping into his jeans from the day before and pulling on a clean undershirt. "You gonna get out of bed or just lay there all day?"

"I'm getting up but I need a shower before I'm getting dressed." I got out of bed and pulled on the black undershirt of Dom's off the floor for the walk to the shower. I caught him looking at me, eyes gone black. I cocked an eyebrow.

"You look good in my shirt, but you'd look better without it."

He started my way. "Dominic, its mid afternoon! We also went at it all night."

"You were gone for months," he answered, grabbing my ass with both hands and biting the side of my neck just hard enough, like only he knew how to do.

"And now I'm back for good, so we have forever to catch up," I assured on a moan. "I want to tell the team."

"Fine, go have your shower. I'll wait for you here so we can do it together." He answered me, clearly disappointed.

I grinned. "Ok, I won't be long." I ran out of the room before Dom could change his mind, showered as quickly as was possible and headed back into our room to get dressed. When I had clothes on, I stopped to look at myself in the small mirror above the dresser I kept my stuff in. I looked different to myself. If I'd set out to grow up, I'd say I managed. I felt like I looked older. Like I was ready to be someone's wife. Someone's partner, for life. I looked in that mirror and I knew myself, for the first time in a long time, I knew myself as Letty, not as some accessory to Dominic Toretto, and it was good. "Ready?" I turned away from the mirror and toward Dom.

"Yeah, let's go make Mia's day," Dom grinned, and he was so happy. It was horrible that things had to go so far to hell before they could turn around, but if we could do this, if we could keep this up, it was going to be worth it.

We headed down the stairs to find everyone else piled in the living room. Mia was sat beside Brian and neither of them looked like they'd been crying lately so that could only be a good thing. Vince was occasionally giving Brian dirty looks but otherwise seemed whole and healthy so I guess he and Brian hadn't gone at each other lately. Leon and Jesse were on the floor in their normal places. Fiona was sat on the end of the sofa where Mia wasn't, but if I wasn't mistaken she kept covertly looking at Vince. I hmmmed to myself in my head and spent a moment thinking about that. I got a feeling like she was over her need for revenge. I didn't think she'd use Vince to get back at us or indeed at him anymore. I'd keep my eye on it, but I was ok with it, if there was an it there to be ok with.

Dom and I walked into the living room, stood in front of the TV. I didn't know how to tell them so I just held my hand out in front of me and said "We're getting married." Dom grinned and before I knew it everyone was hugging us in a big, messy, smothering group hug and it was so good I was crying and I didn't care if they all saw me. I was home, in the middle of my big, messy, happy family and I finally knew it was definitely where I belonged. I looked up at Dominic, smiling down at me, looking truly happy and I vowed to myself, never again will we let it get so bad as we need to be apart.

_Epilogue – 1 year later_

One year after the summer I went away, it was almost like it had never happened. Other than Rome now lived in Los Angeles, true to his word he had only been in Miami because he was happy with Brian. Dom and got married straight away. We gave Mia a month to get together what she wanted to get together. We insisted we weren't waiting any longer than that. She pulled it off like you wouldn't believe. Well, if I've done a good job describing Mia, maybe you would.

She and Brian have been married for about two months themselves. As I sit in the backyard at the picnic table with Leon and Jesse she comes waddling out the door. She's about 8 months pregnant with twins, so she's as big as a house. We don't tell her that, because it makes her cry and Brian has to take her out for new shoes to make her stop. Shoes she can't even wear until after the babies come I might add.

My big, messy family has moved on a bit. Brian bought a house just down the road as soon as he found out Mia was expecting, figuring it wouldn't be fair to everyone else to have two screaming infants in a house as small and already overcrowded as Casa Toretto was. When Dom and I told them that I was also knocked up, a choice of words that Dominic was not all that impressed I made, everyone agreed that there was no way we could have three newborns in one place.

So that we could have some space to ourselves, Leon, Jesse and Vince moved out too. Leon and Jesse have an apartment together but Vince got his own place, with Fiona. They're very happy together but I think they're content just to be happy with each other. I don't think they plan to do more than live together for a long, long time.

Turns out Fiona was going to go into business, so the great thing is she's doing that part time and putting what she's learning into practice already, running the garage. Mia can't do the garage and the shop with her waistline expanding and she won't have time to do much more than the books for the Cafe once the twins come along. Not when she's going to get right back into school afterward as well. Fiona's done a good job of domesticating the Coyote and keeping all the males of the clan in check at the shop as well.

We expanded the shop. Brian took over my bay and Rome is capably filling the extra one Dominic added at the same time as he built my paint booth. At first we thought I would just do some painting in my spare time. Now, its all I do because the second I finish one job someone else is there looking. Though I can't do too much right now, not with this huge whale belly stuck out in front of me. And the worry of what the paint fumes would do to the kid. I don't want to fuck he or she up in the womb. I figure this family will do enough of that over its life without me doing anything to mess them up before they even have a chance.

Dom and I agree that we've learned from the mistakes we made, and that we're going to do ok as parents. I think we're both really scared shitless about it, but it's too late to change our minds now so we're both putting on a brave front. I'm gonna have little Toretto Jr right around the same time as Mia is going to pop out the two little O'Connors. If she doesn't blow up first. Girl is huge, but don't tell her I said so. So the cousins can grow up together and have the same school. Mia is really excited about it. God help Brian because she's already got two of everything that she thinks she needs.

We still all get together for meals and whatever as often as we can, thus the family bbq in the Toretto house back yard. I watch Dom come walking across the yard with a big platter of burgers. He sets them down before going back into the house. He comes out with a cooler full of Corona and hands them out. Until he gets to me, then he hands me a Snapple with a smirk. "No Corona for you little Mami. Not until you pop anyway." Dom gets digs in about my size all the time. Because I don't start to blubber like a watering pot when he does. I just hurt him to remind him being pregnant doesn't make me easy going or weak.

I punched him in the gut. "I'm pregnant, not ill."

He grunted. "Point taken." Dom sat at the head of the table. I watched him survey the whole messy lot of us before his eyes settled on me and he smiled softly, knowingly at me. And I knew that smile said that all was right with his world. I knew because all was right with mine. Then the baby kicked me in the gut and I realized I was starving. I took a cheeseburger off the platter of them and went to flip the lid off to add ketchup.

"Because you were the first to get the food Letty, you say grace." Dom's gravely deep voice cut across the table. I snapped my head up to glare at him and everyone else laughed at my expense. "Those are the rules," he reminded me and everyone else chimed in with 'you know he's right' and variations on that theme.

I lowered my head to think about what to say as Mia blessed herself and Vince smirked at me. "Dear Father," I took a deep breath to gather my thoughts and then continued, "thank you for friends, who become your big, messy, happy family. Thank you for teaching us to value what we have, to remember who we are, and for giving us the chance to be better together then good enough apart. Thank you for showing us that family is the most important thing in the world, and for helping us to be such a great one. Thank you for looking out for us so that we're all still alive to be a family, and most of all, thank you for direct port nitrous injection, four core intercoolers, ball bearing turbos and titanium valve springs."

"Amen!" Leon finished before he and Jesse both cracked up laughing. Vince ruffled my hair from his seat beside me and gave me this content smile, unable to be too affectionate because he was Vince, but knowing that my thankfulness for us all being alive was because whatever you believed was up there had seen fit not to take Vince and Jesse from us.

Dom stood up, leaned over and kissed me hard before sitting back down like a king on his throne and declaring "let's eat!"

It was ok he was the king, because I was finally the proper queen at his side, and we were finally a proper family. I shared a look with Mia and I know we were both thinking her dad was smiling down on us, happy with what we'd made of ourselves, and happy that we were still a family, who had stuck beside each other through it all and glad we were happy. And it was good, because we truly were.

_Fin._


End file.
